Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
PC Brief Week 8/9, 2016
The first of these two weeks saw very limited governmental activities because of the PA Winter
Meeting taking place in the Hofburg Conference Center. During both weeks, there were meet-
ings of the Permanent Council (PC) – one with Georgian Minister of Defense Ms. Tinantin
Khidasheli, the Forum for Security Co-operation, the Preparatory Committee (PrepComm), the
Advisory Committee on Management and Finance (ACMF), the three topical committees, other
informal meetings, as well as the two-day Annual Implementation Assessment Meeting (AIAM).
In addition, the first meeting of the Contact Group with the Mediterranean Partners for Coopera-
tion took place in the presence of the winners of the 2015 Peace Nobel Prize, the Tunisian
Quartet that had helped to organize the elections and helped the democratic transition.
On Monday of the first week, I briefed a Bundestag Subcommittee in Berlin on possibilities for
the OSCE PA and its members to address crises and conflicts. On Friday of the second week, a
Security Day on Migration organized by the OSCE Secretary General took place in Rome and
was attended by most ambassadors. Francesco Pagani spent most of that week in Rome ac-
companying a PA delegation and PA Secretary General Roberto Montella.
The PC approved the Year-end Unified Budget Revision and the dates of the 2016 Annual Se-
curity Review Conference (ASRC – June 28 until 30, 2016). There is no consensus yet about a
new Representative on the Freedom of the Media as a successor for Dunja Mijatovic. The
regular report by the Head of the Mission in Montenegro briefed the PC about the current politi-
cal difficulties in the country, which are partly caused by the country’s desire to become member
of NATO and by the upcoming elections. The delegations of Mongolia and the USA extended an
invitation to observe their 2016 elections. I briefed the PC about the outcome of the PA’s Winter
Meeting.
I also used the opportunity of the Contact Group Meeting and the presence of the Nobel Prize
Winners to remind delegations of the successful OSCE PA observation of the first democratic
elections under the leadership of the PA President Riccardo Migliori.
The AIAM is the meeting that looks into commitments undertaken in the military part of the Se-
curity Dimension. For many years in a row it has been underused because of the existing diffi-
culties regarding the state of the OSCE acquis of confidence and security building measures.
While most OSCE participating States urge for an update of the Vienna document, which has to
be reissued this year, the Russian Federation opposes it. As a consequence, the conference did
not make any substantial contribution to the OSCE’s work.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador
March 7, 2016