Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
PC Brief Week 10, 2015
This week there were meetings of the Permanent Council (PC) and a two-day 25
th
Annual Implementa-
tion Assessment Meeting (AIAM), and a meeting of the “Group of Friends of Security Sector Govern-
ance/Reform (SSR/G)”, in addition to other informal meetings.
The AIAM serves as the annual assessment of compliance with commitments in the politico-military
dimension. Naturally, it was under the impression of the developments in Ukraine. In the context of the
crisis, requests for inspections on unusual military activities and other confidence building measures
had been made. According to Russia, it had dealt correctly with such requests, while this was put in
doubt by some Western countries. In general, it is obvious that the long-lasting crisis between Russia
and the West has negatively impacted the OSCE acquis of confidence and security building measures.
Some delegations reiterated their position that the Vienna Document is in urgent need of moderniza-
tion.
The PC had no special items on its agenda. Instead, delegates debated a long list of Current Issues
ranging from the usual items related to the Ukraine-Russia conflict, the increasingly tense situation be-
tween Armenia and Azerbaijan, worrying political developments in the former Yugoslav Republic of
Macedonia, and the elections in Tajikistan, to the International Women’s Day. In addition, there was a
debate on the murder of Boris Nemzov. All of these debates, which often repeated arguments that oc-
cur every week, did not lead to any decision. This was sharply criticized by the ambassador of Germa-
ny who appealed to the delegations to work on an effective contribution of the OSCE to crisis man-
agement and resolution. The US ambassador praised the work of ambassadors Apakan and Tagliavini.
I read out the press statement by the OSCE PA President on the Nemzov murder and made a state-
ment on the election observation in Tajikistan. Regarding the latter, I had to emphasize the point that
the agreed upon post-election preliminary statement read by Chairman-in-office appointed Special Co-
ordinator Marietta Tidei of Italy — and only this statement — is the official assessment by election ob-
servers. This clarification was necessary because according to the reports received, ODIHR On-Site
Coordinator Miklos Haraszti went far beyond the agreed text in his statement during the press confer-
ence, in contravention of the Cooperation Agreement. This was much to the dismay of Special Coordi-
nator Tidei, and also drew complaints from the leader of the PA delegation, Geir Jorgen Bekkevold.
The Special Monitoring Mission on Ukraine (SMM) requests 89 million Euros to operate for one more
year. The West wants most of it to come from assessed contributions (the Unified Budget), whereas
Russia argues it should come largely from voluntary (extra budgetary) contributions.
Security Sector Governance and Reform, mediation and many other topics related to activities address-
ing the so-called conflict cycle are increasingly accepted by the governmental side - and in particular
the Conflict Prevention Center (CPC) - as areas in which the PA makes an important contribution. The
active participation of the Vienna Office in the respective groups of friends is therefore highly valued.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador
March 6, 2015
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