Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
PC Brief Week 23/24, 2015
During these weeks, there were four meetings of the Permanent Council (PC), as well as meet-
ings of the Forum for Security Co-operation (FSC), the Committees, a two-day Colloquium
“Conciliation in the Globalized World of Today” by OSCE Court of Conciliation and Arbitration,
as well as a plenitude of additional informal meetings. I spent the first week on a field trip to
Belgrade, Pristina and Skopje with the PA’s Special Representative on South East Europe,
Roberto Battelli. Roberto Battelli spent several days in Turkey as part of the PA’s election ob-
servation.
The PC did not take any decision. In particular, the delegations have not been able to find con-
sensus on the agenda for the Annual Security Review Conference (ASRC) scheduled for June
23 – 25, 2015 (!!). The principal controversial issue is how to phrase the Ukraine conflict as an
agenda topic. The PC heard extensive presentations from the Chair of the Council of Europe
Council of Ministers Igor Crnadak, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina, the
Foreign Ministers of Malta, George Vella, and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Ni-
kola Poposki, in addition to regular reports from missions and special representatives. One of
the Special PC meetings debated the consequences of the decision of Azerbaijan to terminate
the agreement on the Office of the Project Coordinator in Baku, closing the office and request-
ing to withdraw all personnel land equipment within one month, despite a mandate which is
based on a consensual PC decision and is valid until the end of the year.
During the latter debate, most delegations deplored the untimely decision and the unusually
short deadlines set by Azerbaijan, while Russia and Kazakhstan underlined that the closure is a
sovereign right of Azerbaijan. During the debate on recent events and the political crisis in the
former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, most delegations, after having received additional in-
formation from the Special Representative of the Chairman-in-Office Gerard Stoudmann,
stressed the need to speedily implement the EU-facilitated all-party agreement of June 2, calling
on the government and the opposition to work together in a cooperative spirit. I reported about
the visit of PA Special Representative Roberto Battelli, referring to his recent press release on
the issue. The debates on Ukraine did not contribute anything new. During the debate with the
Foreign Minister of Malta, all Mediterranean Partners for Cooperation were present, supporting
the urgent call for a stronger OSCE engagement in the Southern Mediterranean.
The Colloquium of the OSCE Court took place almost unnoticed by most delegations. Also, so
far, it has not been invited to the planned commemoration of the 40
th
anniversary of the Helsinki
Final Act. Although it offers diverse possibilities to react to international disputes, including
through decisions taken by means of consensus minus two (without the parties to the conflict)
and is based on a 1992 Stockholm Convention, which has been ratified by 33 participating
States, it has never been used. The Colloquium tried to explore why this is so and how it could
be changed, looking at institutions and cases that have used conciliation and arbitration.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador
June 12, 2015