Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
PC Brief Week 3, 2015
This week saw the opening of the Serbian OSCE Chairmanship and the Annual
Meeting of Heads of OSCE Field Operations and Institutions. The OSCE PA was
represented by PA Secretary General Oliver, Deputy Secretary General Pallares,
Program Officer Chepurina and the Vienna Office. There were also meetings of
the Preparatory Committee (PrepComm) and informal negotiations, including a
briefing by the Head of the Special Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (SMM), Ambas-
sador Apakan. During the Winter Recess there were two Special PC and Prep-
Comm meetings, as well as meetings of the Advisory Committee on Management
and Finance.
As a result of these meetings participating States managed to come to an agree-
ment over the Unified Budget for 2015 – after the expiry of the deadline. The
budget contains another slight nominal decrease, despite the added challenges
caused by the crisis in and around Ukraine. Compared with 2014, The overall
budget decreased by -0,8%. In absolute terms, the 2015 budget is at 141,1 million
Euros, for the Secretariat at +1%, ODIHR at +1,2% (75000€ increase for elections,
75000€ for Tolerance and Non-Discrimination, 40000€ for Trafficking).
There was also an agreement on financing the additional staffing of the SMM,
which is now increasing its staff to full capacity. In addition to the usual formal
opening of the year by the Chairmanship, the PC’s January meeting approved a
declaration on the recent terrorist attacks in Paris and also debated the events in
Ukraine.
In his informal briefing, Ambassador Apakan reported on the current state of the
SMM’s deployment, including efforts to start monitoring the Russian-Ukrainian
border. However, serious security concerns persist, not only in the light of the most
recent attacks.
In the meetings of Annual Meeting of Heads of OSCE Field Operations and Institu-
tions, OSCE PA Secretary General Spencer Oliver and his staff underlined once
again the high value the PA attaches to the OSCE’s work in the field and high-
lighted the PA’s activities in relation to regional issues.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador
January 19, 2015
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