Special Representative
To:
PA President
and
PA Secretary General
PC Brief Week 47/48, 2019
During these weeks there were meetings of the Permanent Council (PC), the Forum for Se-
curity Cooperation (FSC), the Contact Groups with the Partners for Cooperation, many meet-
ings of the informal bodies and drafting sessions, as well as a two-day Supplementary Human
Dimension Meeting (SHDM) on Freedom of Peaceful Assembly and an event of the Repre-
sentative for the Freedom of the Media on “How do we curtail the spread of hate speech,
violent extremism and disinformation online while protecting free speech?” I took part in
the Reinforced Ambassadorial Retreat in Bratislava. Marco Bonabello participated in a Meet-
ing of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean on Counterterrorism in Rome and
Francesco Pagani in a Staff meeting in Copenhagen.
The PC extended the mandates of the OSCE field presences in Albania, Montenegro, North
Macedonia (“Skopje”), Serbia and Uzbekistan and forward the Ministerial Council Agenda to
the ministers. The FSC adopted Agenda and Modalities of the Thirtieth Annual Implementa-
tion Assessment Meeting and approved the Conflict Prevention Center’s Support for the An-
nual Exchange of Military Information.
The main focus continued to be on the growing number of draft documents that have been
put forward for the Ministerial Council meeting which will start in Bratislava this week (see
attached list). With many delegations insisting on language that clearly and foreseeably
crosses “Red Lines” of others, it is difficult to predict whether there will be any meaningful
paper output from this meeting. References to the work of the OSCE PA can be found in
most drafts put forward by the Chairmanship – unfortunately most of these references
have been objected to by the delegation of the Russian Federation. Hopefully, this will
change during the drafting sessions that will start in Bratislava tomorrow. So far, it has not
been possible to adopt decisions on the next two chairmanships after Albania (Sweden/Po-
land). These decisions seem to have become hostage to some bilateral issues.
Another focus remains on the budget discussions. The deadline will be quickly reached af-
ter the Ministerial Council.
Andreas Nothelle
Ambassador
December 3, 2019