Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
PC Brief Week 14, 2016
This week, there were meetings of the Permanent Council (PC), including a Special PC on the
crisis between Armenia and Azerbaijan, the plenary of the Minsk Group, the PrepComm, the
Human Dimension Committee, the Informal Working Group Focusing on the Issue of Migration
and Refugee Flows, a Workshop ‘‘Reflecting on the Implementation of the SSG/R Guidelines”.
There also was a Working Luncheon hosted by Egypt for several main actors of the Contact
Group with the Mediterranean Partners for Cooperation.
The PC extended the Deployment of OSCE Observers to Two Russian Checkpoints on the
Russian-Ukrainian Border for another three months. In the meeting of the Special PC on the
crisis between Armenia and Azerbaijan, I informed delegations about the joint statement by
President Kanerva and Special Representative Vigenin. I also expressed condolences to the
victims and the families and friends of the deceased and expressed the readiness of the PA to
contribute – on an inter-parliamentary level - to the search for a comprehensive settlement and
any confidence building-measure that reduces the risk for further hostilities on the path towards
such a settlement. The members of the Group of countries working on the crisis dealt with by
the Minsk Conference (“Minsk Group”), in a meeting that preceded the PC and to which I had
been invited, had agreed on a brief statement regarding the immediate cessation of violence,
which was presented to the PC. Co-Chairman US-Amb. Warlick, on behalf of the Minsk Group,
and the Chairman-in-Office’s Special Representative Amb. Kasprzyk reported about the
situation. In addition, apart from the usual list of “Current Issues”, there were several interpreta-
tive statements regarding the decision to extend Dunja Mijatovic’s mandate and also regarding
the observation of the two border crossing points.
In a meeting of the OSCE’s “Informal Working Group Focusing on the Issue of Migration and
Refugee Flows”, I informed delegations about the mandate of the PA’s Ad Hoc Committee on
Migration and reiterated the PA’s readiness for close cooperation, as previously expressed in
the Committee’s mandate and in a letter I sent to the Chairman of the Group, Swiss Amb. Wild.
The week started with the launch of the OSCE’s Guidelines on Security Sector Govern-
ance/Reform (SSG/R), which the Secretariat issued after close cooperation with many actors,
including the OSCE PA. The latter was underlined by the OSCE Secretary General and several
delegates in the meeting. I expressed the PA’s gratitude for this close and fruitful cooperation
and announced that we will continue working on this issue which is very close to the heart of
parliamentarians.
Finally, the former Speaker of the Parliament of Cyprus and President of the Union of Cyprus
Municipalities Alexis Galanos, together with several mayors from Cyprus and the Ambassador
of the country, visited the Liaison Office.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador
April 8, 2016