Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
PC Brief Weeks 15/16, 2016
During these two weeks, there were meetings of the Permanent Council (PC), the
Forum for Security Cooperation (FSC) under the new (Polish) Chairmanship, the
Mediterranean Contact Group, the three topical committees, the Preparatory Commit-
tee (PrepComm) and the Advisory Committee on Management and Finance (ACMF),
as well as many other informal meetings, a two-day Supplementary Human Dimension
Meeting (SDHM) on Tolerance and Non-discrimination, an OSCE Conflict Cycle
Roundtable Discussion on “Early Warning and Early Action: Narrowing the Gap”, and
the two-day 16th Alliance Against Trafficking In Persons Conference. The Staff of the
Liaison Office spent part of these two weeks at the Bureau Meeting and a subsequent
meeting of the International Secretariat in Copenhagen, as well as at the Leinsweiler
Retreat, which it prepared (see report in the News from Copenhagen).
The PC did not take decisions. Apart from routine reports by ODIHR Director Link and
the Head of the Mission to Moldova, Amb. Scanlan, there were the usual reciprocal
accusations regarding the crisis in and around Ukraine, as well as a number of other
Current Issues discussed, some of which seem to be meant as tit-for-tat items. I
replied to Director Link’s report underlining his personal contribution to the removal of
obstacles for good cooperation on election observation, and the agreements we
reached this year on strengthening our cooperation in all other fields. I also used this
opportunity to remind delegations of the importance of democratic procedures in the
implementation of human rights and the crucial role parliamentarians have in this.
During the OSCE Conflict Cycle Roundtable Discussion on Early Warning and Early
Action I referred once more to the 2012 Food for Thought Paper of the OSCE
Secretariat for a closer cooperation with the PA in addressing conflicts, outlining the
comparative advantages of the involvement of the PA and its members.
The necessary decisions on this year’s Human Dimension Events (the next will be in
May) are being delayed, also because of the request by Russia to move the Human
Dimension Implementation Meeting from Warsaw to Vienna.
I also had a number of meetings with the Permanent Representatives of Azerbaijan,
France, Russia and the USA to follow-up the Leinsweiler Retreat.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador
April 25, 2016