OSCEs Parlamentariske Forsamling 2014-15 (1. samling)
OSCE Alm.del Bilag 13
Offentligt
Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
PC Brief Week 9, 2015
This week there were meetings of the Permanent Council (PC) and the Forum for Security Coopera-
tion (FSC), the Contact Group with the Mediterranean Partners, the Preparatory (PrepComm), the
Economic and Environmental (EEC) and the Human Dimension committees, as well as the Advisory
Committee on Management and Finance.
The PC did not take any decisions, except for a routine administrative one, with which it annually
adapts the budget of the previous year to the actual spending. The main focus – apart from the usual
controversies under “Current Issues” over the developments in and around Ukraine – of the discus-
sions was on the report by the Chief Observer Paul Picard of the OSCE Observer Mission at the Rus-
sian Checkpoints Gukovo and Donetsk. Currently, there are 22 observers in the observer mission. It
became clear once again that the limitations of this mission do not allow it to conduct any meaningful
border monitoring, although the report did confirm that persons in military clothes and ambulances
with wounded people had been crossing the border in both directions. Furthermore, most delegations
condemned the recent terrorist attack on a march in Kharkiv commemorating the anniversary of the
Maїdan events of February 2014. Germany and Turkey, in particular, underlined the need for an or-
derly verification of the withdrawal of heavy weapons with the help of the OSCE toolbox.
The other item on the agenda was the regular report by the Head of the OSCE Mission to Serbia.
Malta, under “Current Issues”, also raised the issue of the threatening situation in its immediate
neighborhood caused by the disastrous recent developments in Libya. I briefed the PC on the out-
come of the PA’s Winter Meeting. The OSCE was invited by Kazakhstan to observe their presidential
elections and by Turkey for their parliamentary elections.
Discussions in the EEC mostly focused on preparations and the agenda of the 2nd Economic and
Environmental Preparatory Meeting which are due to take place in Belgrade on 11 - 13 May. In the
Human Dimension Committee it became clear that the Chairmanship is facing the usual problems of
putting together a 2015 package of Human Dimension events, mainly because of Russian objections.
During an informal exchange of views with a High Level UN Panel reviewing the status of UN-led
peace-keeping operations, delegates requested that the Helsinki+40 Process should also look at the
issue of possible OSCE Peace Operations, especially in light of recent OSCE experience in Ukraine.
The Contact Group with the Mediterranean Partners debated the topic "After Paris - Freedom of the
Media and Countering Violent Extremism and Radicalization".
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador
March 2, 2015
1 of 1