OSCE, Alm.del - 2013-14 - Bilag 4: Nyhedsbrev fra Ambassadør Andreas Nothelle, uge 42, 2013

PC Brief Week 41/42, 2013These were the two weeks during which the Election Observation Mission in Azerbaijan and the BudvaAutumn Meeting took place, resulting in my absence for all but two days. Roberto Montella and Marc Ca-rillet were also absent for several days. During these weeks, there were meetings of the PC, the FSC, theContact Groups with the Partners, the Committees and other subsidiary bodies, as well as a one-day am-bassadorial retreat preparing for the Kiev Ministerial Council. In addition, Secretary General Zannier intro-duced the draft 2014 Unified Budget. The PA’s Special Representative on the OSCE Budget, IcelandicMP Dr. Petur Blöndal, took part in the meeting and met with Zannier on the sidelines of the PC.During his presentation, SG Zannier stated that the PA’s requests for presentations of the budget at itsFall Meetings had to be seen “in the context of an increasing willingness from the OSCE PA to exerciseoversight on the OSCE and its budget”. He appealed to the Chairmanship and upcoming Chairmanships,as well as to the participating States, to “clarify the relationship between the OSCE PA and the intergov-ernmental structures of the organization”. He concluded that, on a personal basis, he will continue to en-gage with the OSCE PA. It should be noted that in his letter in which he explained why he did not come tothe PA's Autumn Meeting, the Secretary General spoke about presenting "the budgetary implications ofthe OSCE activities" instead of referring to his appearance before the PA's Standing Committee as apresentation of the draft budget. Petur Blondal replied in a statement during the PC meeting (statementavailable on PA website) and held a personal meeting with him on the sidelines of the PC.In the second PC meeting, there was a heated debate on the result of the OSCE election observation inAzerbaijan. It became clear once again that the constellation in which this election had been observed,with extreme differences in the perceptions of PACE and the EP on one side and the ODIHR on the otherside, had led to a difficult situation for the PA members in charge. Azerbaijan is rejecting the OSCE state-ment that had been delivered by the CiO’s Special Coordinator Michel Voisin on behalf of all OSCE ob-servers as “biased”, and urging participating States to review in particular ODIHR’s election observationactivities. In doing so, Azerbaijan referred to alleged statements by Michel Voisin and by the leader of thePA delegation for these elections, OSCE PA Vice President Doris Barnett, making it necessary for me tomake a clarifying statement. After the meeting, many Western ambassadors expressed relief that this timethe PA had made it possible to issue a statement together with the ODIHR.I also briefed the PC and the Contact Group with the Mediterranean Partners for Cooperation about theBudva Autumn Meetings. During the Mediterranean Contact Group Meeting, the Chairman of the group,the Swiss Ambassador, referred to reluctance on the part of some participating States to consider Libya’sapplication for becoming a Partner for Cooperation, assessing it as premature as long as the situation inthe country remains unstable. The Swiss Ambassador turned the argument around by stating that it isprecisely because the situation is unstable that Libya needs to receive concrete OSCE support, as Libya’sForeign Minister had explained it to the PA at its last year Mediterranean Forum.The ambassadorial retreat discussed possible “deliverables” for the Ministerial Council. So far, only fewdrafts have been tabled and there have not yet been official discussions of these drafts. However, in theHuman Dimension Committee, the Russian delegate said that Russia would oppose any references to“non-consensual” documents, explaining afterwards that this referred also to any PA resolution.