Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
PC Brief Week 2, 2017
This week was dedicated to the opening of the OSCE Chairmanship, ending the Winter
Recess. This Winter Recess was marked by a number of meetings, including Special
Meetings of the Permanent Council (PC), mainly in an – unsuccessful - attempt to settle
ongoing controversies about the extension of a number of field presences and about the
2017 budget. There was also a Special PC meeting devoted to the assassination of the
Russian ambassador to Turkey, in which the PC adopted a “Declaration on the Deadly
Terrorist Attack against the Russian Ambassador to Turkey”. The first regular PC in 2017
served for the address of Austrian Foreign Minister Sebastian Kurz as the new OSCE
Chairman-in-Office, and a subsequent round of statements by the representatives of the
participating States. PA President Christine Muttonen and Secretary General Montella
represented the PA at the meeting. It was followed by the traditional two-day annual meet-
ing of Heads of OSCE field presences and institutions. The PA was represented by Secre-
tary General Montella, Deputy Secretary General Pallarés, Chief of the Executive Office
Baker and Presidential Advisor Chepurina, as well as the Vienna Office.
The new Austrian OSCE Chairmanship is confronted with an unprecedented situation,
with vacancies of all leading OSCE posts, a budget that has not yet been approved, on
top of all the problems that result from the deepening of dividing lines in Europe, rising
tensions, heated polemics, growing polarization within the societies and unresolved mili-
tary conflicts. In comparison to this, the reason for the failure to find consensus on the
extension of the field presences in Armenia, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Uzbekistan, and the
observer mission to two Russian-Ukrainian border checkpoints may appear to be relative-
ly minor: Azerbaijan did not want to join the consensus on the extension of the Office in
Yerevan before the Chairmanship publicly instructed it not to do a certain de-mining pro-
ject on occupied Azerbaijani territory. In response, Armenia did not join the consensus on
the extension of the field presences listed above. In order to allow for the continuation of
the search for a possible compromise, the Chairmanship considers the mandates to be
suspended, not terminated, because otherwise the OSCE Secretary General would have
to start closing them down.
The Annual Meeting allowed for a broad exchange of information with the heads of the
OSCE field presences and a certain amount of coordination of PA activities with those on
the governmental side. However, all sides being bound by extremely busy schedules, it
will be difficult to meet all expectations regarding a mutual streamlining of activities.
In addition, PA Secretary General Montella and I attended the “Hour with the OSCE Sec-
retary General with the heads of the delegations of the participating States”, which was
devoted to additional internal information regarding pending issues.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador
January 17, 2017