OSCE, Alm.del - 2013-14 - Bilag 7: Nyhedsbrev fra Ambassadør Andreas Nothelle, uge 43, 2013

PC Brief Weeks 43/44, 2013These two weeks included the visit by President Krivokapic, meetings of the PC, the FSC, the am-bassadorial working group on Helsinki+40, an Economic and Environmental Dimension Implementa-tion Meeting (attended by Rosa Aknazarova), the Security and the Human Dimension Committee (at-tended by the Bureau of the PA’s Third Committee), meetings of other committees and other informalmeetings, as well as a two-day presentation of ODIHR’s Review of Electoral Legislation and Practicein the OSCE participating states. I spent the first week on the official visit of the PA’s Special Repre-sentative on South East Europe Roberto Battelli to Bosnia and Herzegovina, including participating inthe regional Code of Conduct Seminar on parliamentary oversight of the Armed Forces (the Newsfrom Copenhagen reported about the visit and the seminar). Additionally, Marc Carillet attended theOSCE Mediterranean Conference accompanying VP Alain Néri, and Roberto Montella participated inthe Election Observation Mission in Georgia.The PC took two decisions: on the date of the 2013 meeting of the Heads of Verification Centers andon an Election Support Team to Afghanistan. The address by the PA President, as well as thepresentations by the PA’s Committee Officers, were very well received. 12 Permanent Representa-tives representing 47 countries replied to the President’s statement, which underlined the PA’s aspira-tions for a stronger role in OSCE decision-making. Only one delegation, Canada, disputed this bystating that sufficient oversight was exercised by the governments, internal controls of the Secretariatand the diplomats. All delegations expressed their satisfaction with the positive PA-ODIHR coopera-tion that had marked the most recent election observations.At the occasion of Council of Europe SG Jagland’s address to the PC the US highlighted the discrep-ancies between the Azerbaijan post-election statements of OSCE observers on one side and PACEon the other side. In his reply, SG Jagland said that the ODIHR had the most solid concept of electionobservation and that the observers from PACE had only been in the country for a short time.During the Helsinki +40 Working Group meeting on “Implementation of Human Dimension Commit-ments”, the Georgian delegation called again - as some years ago - for a Human Rights monitoringmechanism in which the OSCE PA would have a central role. Russia rejected the idea of creating anyadditional monitoring mechanism. Azerbaijan and Russia are blocking any reference to PA resolutionsin a Ministerial Council Draft Decision on the Protection of Journalists, and Russia also blocks such areference in a PC draft decision on Trafficking. On the other hand, during the presentation of ODIHR’scomparative study of electoral legislation, Russia stressed the important role of the OSCE PA in elec-tion observation and called for its reinforcement.Irish Amb. Philip Macdonagh was appointed as Helsinki+40 coordinator on strengthening OSCE ef-fectiveness and efficiency, thus being the first of eight ambassadors to be appointed as coordinators.

Special Representative