Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
July 13, 2015
PC Brief Weeks 27/28, 2015
During these two weeks, there were meetings of the Permanent Council (PC) or the Forum for Security Co-
operation (FSC), one joint meeting between the two, meetings of the Preparatory Committee (PrepCom), the
Advisory Committee on Management and Finance (ACMF), the groups of friends of Mediation and of Securi-
ty Sector Reform and Governance (SSG/R), as well as a two-day OSCE-wide Counter-Terrorism Expert
Conference: Countering the Incitement and Recruitment of Foreign Terrorist Fighters and a Supplementary
Human Dimension Meeting (SHDM) on Freedom of Religion or Belief, Fostering Mutual Respect and Under-
standing, the 4th Annual Discussion on the Implementation of the Code on Conduct on Politico-Military As-
pects of Security and 15th OSCE Alliance against Trafficking in Persons Conference “People at risk: combat-
ing human trafficking along migration routes” (6-7 July). At the end of the second week, the PC moved to
Helsinki, for the planned High-Level event, which was more like a PC with participation from the capitals, and
without Russian participation. During this week, all permanent staff from the Vienna Office attended the PA’s
Annual Session in Helsinki.
The PC took a managerial decision on the Economic and Environmental Dimension Implementation Meeting,
which will take place on 19-20 October 2015 in Vienna. Belarus announced that it has invited the ODIHR and
will invite the OSCE PA to observe the country’s upcoming presidential elections in Belarus (October 11,
2015). The PC was addressed by the incoming Chairman-in-Office, German Foreign Minister Frank-Walter
Steinmeier. The address was well received, but did not indicate any policy changes as regards previous
chairmanships. However, in his reply to the comments, Steinmeier also underlined his impression that the
PC was used mainly to put national positions on record, as opposed to an effective and fruitful dialogue
about how to solve the many problems the organization and Europe are facing. The “High-Level” event
should have given a possibility for real interaction, but there was very little of it. Most remarkably, although
the PA had just presented its very elaborate report on its Helsinki+40 Project, and despite the pertinent PA
resolution, delegates did not mention the PA’s contribution at all, even after I had presented it at the Working
Lunch of Heads of Delegations.
Under Current Issues, there was a repetition of the usual discussions about the crisis in and around Ukraine.
In addition, Russia raised the point of the Finnish decision to deny several Russian PA members entry into
the country for the purpose of exercising their membership rights in the OSCE PA Annual Session. I under-
lined the international practice that meetings of parliamentary assemblies can take place only if the host
country ensures that all PA members can participate and criticized that the extensive list of exceptions made
from the EU sanctions that only mention diplomatic OSCE meetings, but not the OSCE PA, meaning that
members banned from participating in the PA meeting are perfectly able to participate in events of the gov-
ernmental side in the same country, if listed as members of their national delegations. While underlining that
I could not comment on political issues regarding the sanctions, I therefore urged that OSCE PA Annual
Sessions, as the central decision-making events of the PA, should fall under the same exception as the cor-
responding Ministerial Council Meeting as the main decision-making event on the governmental side, and
that other statutory PA events should receive the same treatment as Chairmanship events. Otherwise, it
would constitute a discrimination against the PA and an infringement of the PA’s autonomy.
The Anti-Terrorism Conference drew a lot of attention and saw many statements, but other than a repetition
of well-know facts and concerns it was difficult to see in which way it has contributed in practical terms to a
development of effective measures by the OSCE. The ambassador of Egypt criticized that the West, when
talking about terrorism, usually focused its efforts on those organizations active in their own countries, ne-
glecting to a large extent what is going on in the Partner Countries. On the other hand, the Partners were
largely not present at the joint PC-FSC meeting on issues of Arms Trade in the Mediterranean region.
The SHDM was poorly attended. Marc Carillet made a statement listing the relevant PA recommendations.
The present Director of the Office of the OSCE Secretary General, Amb. Marcel Pesko, Slovakia, has been
appointed as new Director of the Conflict Prevention Center, replacing Amb. Kobieracki in September.
Andreas Nothelle, Ambassador