We welcome Secretary General Oliver here to the
Permanent Council this morning, and thank him for his
report. We value the relationship between the Permanent
Council and the Parliamentary Assembly, and appreciate
the Parliamentary Assembly’s contribution in the work of
the OSCE.
We especially appreciate Romanian Parliamentarian
Severin’s work in Belarus, in cooperation with the AMG.
We endorse our Romanian colleagues’ call for Mr. Severin
to come here and to provide us insights on his efforts.
We believe additional "democracy teams" could be
usefully formed to assist mission work and are pleased
with the report this morning that steps are being taken
in that direction for Kosovo.
We also believe the Parliamentary Assembly can make a
signal contribution to the REACT effort that the U.S.
has proposed for adoption at Istanbul.
We applaud the Parliamentary Assembly’s continuing
contributions to election observations. There are a
number of elections coming up this fall, which we hope
the Parliamentary Assembly will observe – in partnership
with ODIHR.
We believe the unique combination of expert analysis
and judgment, based on practical political experience
makes the OSCE election assessment both unique and more
compelling.
Finally, Mr. Chairman, I would like to underscore, as
my Swiss colleague did, the Parliamentary Assembly’s
resolution on trafficking in women and children. These
are crimes that affect us all. They are not just an
affront to human dignity, but a real threat to our
societies and ultimately to those societies’
stability.
We are pleased that the Parliamentary Assembly has so
clearly drawn our attention to this problem. We, too,
would support greater, more clearly focused, OSCE
efforts in this area and look forward to working with
the Parliamentary Assembly toward that
end.
