Press Office

The Heads of National Delegations of the OSCE Participating States and Members of the Bureau heard the reports of the President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Peter Lord Bowness (United Kingdom), and the Secretary General of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Mr. Roberto Montella on the priorities of the Assembly in the context of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Addressing the meeting, Andrei Savinykh drew the Assembly’s attention to the importance of multilateral diplomacy. He spoke about the violation of the principles of inter-state co-operation within the OSCE in connection with the failure to enable the Head of the Belarusian delegation to attend the meeting of the Standing Committee in Vienna. Called on the leadership of the OSCE PA to give a principled assessment of the actions of the executive authorities of the Republic of Poland, which prevented the Belarusian parliamentarian from obtaining a visa.

During the consideration of Practical and Procedural Matters in the remote format, Standing Committee Members rejected the inclusion of draft resolutions on questions of urgency initiated by the parliamentary delegations of the USA, the Netherlands and Ukraine on the agenda of the Annual Session. In accordance with the Rules of Procedure of the OSCE PA, when voting against two or more delegations, the Standing Committee decided not to recommend the inclusion of such an item on the agenda of the session.

Parliamentarians also discussed current international political issues, heard the report of the Treasurer of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Mr. Peter Juel-Jensen, and approved the Assembly’s Budget for the 2021 — 2022 financial year. Other topics of discussion included upcoming Assembly events in 2021 — 2022.