OSCE, Alm.del - 2013-14 - Bilag 3: Nyhedsbrev fra Ambassadør Andreas Nothelle, uge 39, 2013

PC Brief Week 39, 2013As announced in my last reports, due to the absence of delegations from Vienna, the PCdid not meet this week, nor will it meet next week. However, there was a meeting of theForum for Security Cooperation (FSC) and its working groups, and there were meetings ofthe Advisory Committee on Management and Finance (ACMF) and the Mediterranean Con-tact Points.The FSC discussed matters pertaining to Small Arms and Light Weapons (SALW), particu-larly the insufficient reporting practices by participating States. The FSC also debated areport from the regional seminar on the Code of Conduct on Politico-Military Affairs whichhad been held in Malta, together with representatives from the Mediterranean Partners. Asreported in the News from Copenhagen, the Chair of the PA’s First Committee, MakisVoridis, represented the PA there. This and the fact that in October PA Special Representa-tive on South East Europe, Roberto Battelli, will represent the PA at a similar seminar inBosnia and Herzegovina for the South East European region prompted me to make astatement outlining the PA’s interest in the subject matter and underlining the importance ofparliamentary oversight. The FSC had papers dealing with further updates of the ViennaDocument on its agenda, but there was no interest among members to discuss them at thatmeeting.The meeting of the ACMF was the last one under the Ukrainian ACMF Chairmanship. Tra-ditionally, the incoming Chairmanship takes over in the second half of the year, in order tochair the meetings that deal with the next budget. In this context, it is noteworthy that Sec-retary General Zannier will unfortunately, as he had announced earlier this year, break withten years of a useful tradition and not present the 2014 draft budget at the PA’s AutumnSession in Budva. The draft budget came out, including a requested 30% increase of theODIHR budget, representing an almost 60% increase over the current budget for elections.A large part of this request is based on the ODIHR’s intention to hire Long Term and ShortTerm observers which in the past used to be seconded by participating States.The Chairmanship released four draft decisions in the Human Dimension for the Kiev Minis-terial Council. The topics are “freedom of religion”, “freedom of the media”, “freedom ofmovement” and “Roma and Sinti”. The draft on media freedom, dealing specifically with theprotection of journalists, makes direct reference to and quotes the PA Resolution onStrengthening OSCE Engagement on Freedom of Opinion and Expression adopted in Vil-nius.

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