Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
PC Brief Weeks 43/44, 2014
During these two weeks, there was a two-day ambassadorial retreat reinforced by political directors from the
capitals preparing the upcoming Basel Ministerial Council (MC) meeting, meetings of the Permanent Council
(PC), including a Special PC which took a decision on the Extension of the Deployment of OSCE Observers to
two Russian Checkpoints on the Russian-Ukrainian Border, the Forum for Security Cooperation (FSC), the
Preparatory Committee (PrepCom) and other committees, several meetings on technical issues and informal
briefings and discussions, a two-day Supplementary Human Dimension Meeting (SDHM) on Human Rights in
the Economic Crisis, an Economic and Environmental Dimension Implementation Meeting (EEDIM) and sev-
eral conferences on technical issues. Together with Marc Carillet and Roberto Montella, I participated in the
PA’s election observation mission in Ukraine.
The ambassadorial retreat discussed ways and means to ensure a successful MC meeting in Basel in the
context of the current crisis between Russia and the vast majority of OSCE member States. Ambassadors
focused on how to achieve a high-level dialogue instead of the routine sequence of statements that is typical
for the meeting. They also discussed the prospects for reaching decisions at a time of sharp disagreements.
One idea put forward by the Chairmanship is to create another Panel of Eminent Persons addressing the fu-
ture of European security architecture. Several representatives reminded the participants that there is, and has
been, an abundance of such expert panels, and underlined that the PA is already engaged in systematic dis-
cussions and offers itself as a high-level forum for dialogue about possible concepts. Delegations have started
to discuss potential draft decisions (see list attached). Several contain language on the PA’s work and/or reso-
lutions, however, there are always individual delegations objecting to this.
The PC agreed on the extension of the deployment of OSCE observers to two Russian checkpoints on the
Russian-Ukrainian border (22 October). The mandate was extended for one-month to 23 November 2014. The
extension will be funded by the Secretariat's cash surplus. The EU and the US expressed regret that the Rus-
sian Federation could not join consensus on both extending and expanding the current mandate of the border
observer mission.
The PC also heard a report by ODIHR Director Link about the recent Human Dimension Implementation Meet-
ing (HDIM) in Warsaw. I reminded the PC that the PA was active in the meeting through the participation of
the Deputy Chairman of the PA’s third committee, Kulkuloglu, and Marc Carillet from the Vienna Office. Under
Current Issues, which again had nine topics mostly relating to the Russia-West conflict, there was a discussion
about the parliamentary elections in Ukraine. I briefly quoted from the statements by PA Special Coordinator
Kent Härstedt, the leader of the PA’s delegation for this mission Vice President Doris Barnett, and President
Kanerva. I stated that the important issues of ODIHR’s non-compliance with the 1997 Cooperation Agreement
that I mentioned in last week’s report have not been resolved, although we cooperated well with the ODIHR
mission on the ground. There also was a vigorous debate about the interpretation of the Minsk Protocols with
regard to local elections in Ukraine, because of the diverging dates set by the rebels and by Kyiv.
The FSC decided on the dates and venue, agenda and modalities of the twenty-fifth Annual Implementation
Assessment Meeting.
The focus of this year's EEDIM was on Good Governance with an emphasis on fighting corruption. The US
delegation referred to this year's EEDIM as "the most effective EEDIM yet". The SHDM was very much a rou-
tine meeting, but also presented an opportunity to discuss the Baku Resolution on Protection and Promotion of
Socio-Economic Rights in the OSCE Area.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador, October 31, 2014
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