Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
PC Brief Week 46, 2014
During this week, there were meetings of the Permanent Council (PC) and of the Forum for Security
Cooperation (FSC), a Security Day on Arms Control and Confidence and Security Building
Measures (CSBMs), meetings of the Preparatory Committee (PrepComm), the Security Committee,
the Human Dimension Committee, as well as many meetings of informal working groups. There
were also the “Hour with the Secretary General” and bilateral meetings between visiting PA Presi-
dent Kanerva and Permanent Representatives, as well as an official Chairmanship luncheon.
President Kanerva delivered the traditional address of the PA President to the Permanent Council,
as reflected in the OSCE PA’s Press Release. The EU, on behalf of the 28 member states of the EU
and of ten countries that aligned themselves with the statement (former Yugoslav Republic of Mace-
donia, Montenegro, Iceland, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Norway, Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia
and San Marino) replied, as well as the (acting) Permanent Representatives of the USA, Russia,
Austria, Azerbaijan, Canada, Mongolia, Serbia and Turkey. All speakers underlined the important
role played by the Parliamentary Assembly, stressed its crucial role as a forum for dialogue and
awareness-raising and valued its role in election-observation. In response, the President underlined
the importance of full implementation of the Minsk protocols and the need for the ODIHR to comply
with the 1997 Cooperation Agreement by ensuring a full and early flow of information and early co-
operation between both OSCE institutions on the preliminary post-election statement. Through the
course of the day, the President had bilateral talks with the ambassadors of Switzerland, Serbia,
Ukraine, Germany, Russia and Turkey, in addition to the discussions at the official luncheon.
The PC also debated the report by the Co-Chairs of the Minsk Process and the Chairman-in-Office’s
Personal Representative for the conflict dealt with by this process, and had the usual controversies
about the situation in Ukraine. On the sidelines it became known that the “unarmed aerial vehicles”
(UAVs), commonly known as drones, that have been supplied to the Special Monitoring Mission
(SMM) have been grounded for security reasons, mainly because the radio-transmission that en-
sures their operation has been jammed. Also, the SMM is still lacking sufficient funds – altogether
approximately 10 million Euros. Since the mandate of the Border Observation Mission, which is ob-
serving on Russian territory, is too limited to ensure effective observation (and it will also need to be
extended after November 23), the SMM should also take over the task of observing the border (from
the Ukrainian side). On November 12, the SMM circulated a concept paper on this.
So far, participating States have not yet reached consensus on the chairmanships for 2016 and
2017 (Germany and Austria).
I reminded participants at the Security Day of the PA’s Baku Declaration and briefed them on the
substantial points made therein on conventional arms control and security-building measures. Also,
in the Open-Ended Working Group on the Conflict Cycle, I once more explained the possible role of
the Parliamentary Assembly and its members in Early Warning and Mediation. My statement was
supported by several delegations. Secretary General Zannier drew the attention of delegations to
the fact that the activities regarding the crisis in Ukraine had led to an almost 40% increase in meet-
ings, with budgetary consequences through additional costs for interpretation and equipment.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador, November 14, 2014
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