Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
PC Brief Week 7, 2015
This week, there were meetings of the Permanent Council (PC) and the Forum for Security
Cooperation (FSC), the Preparatory (PrepComm) and the Human Dimension committees,
as well as of the Advisory Committee on Management and Finance.
The PC did not adopt any decisions, but debated at length the reports of the Chairs of the
three PC committees regarding their plans for the year. Russia criticized the Chair of the
Human Dimension Committee for not putting methods of election observation on the
agenda and for inviting Civil Society Representatives, which it considers to be contrary to
the OSCE Rules of Procedure. The Chairman of that committee announced that there will
be a presentation by the Chair of the PA’s Human Dimension Committee, Isabel Santos.
The PC also heard the regular report from the Mission in Kosovo, the first after the latest
unrest there. Under Current Issues, there was an extensive discussion about the height-
ened tension between Armenia and Azerbaijan, in addition to a debate on the events in
and around Ukraine, which was marked by some uncertainty of delegates on how to react
to the outcome of the Minsk meeting that had just finished. Some statements were very
similar to those from previous meetings, while others seemed to try to adjust theirs to the
“ray of hope” which resulted from the newest Minsk agreements. I briefed delegations
about the upcoming Winter Meeting of the OSCE PA, for which there continues to be con-
siderable interest in, as demonstrated by many requests for additional information received
by the office and a number of meetings with ambassadors on specific issues of interest.
The attempts to reach a consensus on a date for the annual Human Dimension Implemen-
tation Meeting (HDIM) in the PrepComm have continued to be unsuccessful. In an informal
meeting with the company that has provided the Unmanned Aerial Vehicles (UAVs) to the
OSCE, several delegations expressed doubts regarding their cost-effectiveness. In an in-
formal meeting on periods of service, most delegates spoke against changes in the sys-
tem. Also, the term of office of the current Director of the Conflict Prevention Center,
Amb. Kobieracki, is running out, and the deadline for applications for his succession has
now expired. According to the Secretary General, the selection process will take a consid-
erable time. There is not yet a list of the candidates.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador
February 13, 2015
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