Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
PC Brief Week 49, 2014
During this week of the Ministerial Council (MC) meeting, the Permanent Council (PC), and the Forum for Se-
curity Cooperation (FSC), as well as their subsidiary bodies and informal negotiating formats moved to Basel
for an intensive continuation of their negotiations. All permanent staff from the Vienna Office moved to Basel
and joined Copenhagen staff that was there for the PA’s Bureau Meeting on the eve of the MC meeting (re-
ported separately in the News from Copenhagen).
PA President Kanerva delivered his speech on behalf of the OSCE PA (available on the PA’s website) after
the opening speech by the Chairman-in-Office. The Bureau members present in Basel also attended the meet-
ing. The President’s short address, which focused its clear messages on the current European crisis, received
many positive comments from a number of delegations.
In terms of substance, the outcome of the meetings during the MC was as meager as had been expected.
Hundreds of hours of negotiations over the past weeks yielded 16 texts, as opposed to 34 proposals that had
at some point been put forward. Most drafts in the Human Dimension failed to be adopted. Of the texts that
were adopted many were reduced to the least common denominator – some of them to just a few procedural
lines. As a consequence, most references to the work of the OSCE PA were equally dropped, with the excep-
tion of a more general declaration on the cooperation with the Mediterranean Partners. The declaration on
further steps in the Helsinki+40 Process, which some hoped could replace a political declaration, was entirely
without substance. There was also no agreement on the Chairmanship’s plan to create (another) High Level
Panel of Eminent Persons on European Security as a Common Project which is to deal with the impact of the
current European security crisis and concepts to overcome it. Regardless of this, the Chairmanship is planning
to go ahead with it. Most other documents adopted were either a repetition of texts adopted at previous MC
meetings, of UN resolutions, of commemorative character or of procedural nature. The failure to agree on
more substance was mostly the result of Russia’s rejection of Western demands to include a condemnation of
Russia’s actions in Ukraine and the non-recognition of the annexation of Crimea in several texts, but also of
antagonistic concepts of Armenia and Azerbaijan. In the end, in order to at least have some sort of an official
statement reflecting the current European crisis, which also is an OSCE crisis, the Chairman-in-Office read out
a “summary by the Chairmanship” using strong language in describing the position of a large majority of partic-
ipating States, mainly regarding the situation in and around Ukraine.
In addition, the deal that seemed to have been struck the previous week regarding the Kazakh mission has
still not been met with consensus, and there is no agreement on the opening of a mission in Mongolia, alt-
hough the host country is requesting it, nor on an inclusion of Libya among the Partners for Cooperation. At
least, they managed to find candidates for the Chairmanships of 2016 and 2017 (Germany and Austria) and to
agree on them.
The deadline for the budget expires on December 20, 2014. Last year, there was no agreement on the budget
before mid-Spring, so, as it was frequently the case in past years, there is a risk that last year’s exercise will
be repeated. So far, negotiations in the Advisory Committee on Management and Finance (ACMF) have been
unsuccessful, despite a proposal by the Serbian ACMF to reduce the proposed budget increase from 2 to 1,5
million (total: 143.8 million). The Secretariat’s share of the original increase was 900.000 Euros. The ODIHR,
which has asked for an increase of almost 10 percent (1,6 million) has not reduced its part of the proposal.
The OSCE will begin its official Winter Recess on December 22 (last working day Friday 19). It will last until
January 8, 2015 (first working day January 9).
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador
December 8, 2014
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