Joint statement in response to the report by the Head of the OSCE Mission in Kosovo
As delivered by the Permanent Representative of Denmark to the OSCE Ambassador René Dinesen
to the Permanent Council, Vienna
Thursday 5 March 2020
Mr. Chairperson,
I am making this statement in a national capacity and also on behalf of Germany, the United States of America, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Canada, Croatia, Estonia, Finland, France, the United Kingdom, Ireland, Iceland, Italy, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Norway, the Netherlands, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and the Czech Republic.
Mr. Chairperson,
We appreciate the outstanding work carried out by the OSCE Mission in Kosovo in order to support the authorities of the country in strengthening their institutions. We are pleased to welcome Ambassador Jan Braathu to the Permanent Council and look forward to continuing to work with him in a constructive manner.
We welcome the fact that the Mission is continuously adapting its activities to Kosovo’s needs. We recall that the Mission is the second largest of the OSCE Field Operations and that it plays an essential role in Kosovo. We recognize that, as a matter of good governance within our organization, one of the best ways to understand how effectively OSCE Field Operations are implementing their work is to hear directly from the partners and beneficiaries on the ground. Therefore, we consider it essential to have contact between participating States and the Kosovo government administration’s technical representatives co-operating with the OSCE Mission in Kosovo. We encourage the Albanian Chairmanship to make full use of the next reports of Ambassador Braathu, and every other head of mission who presents to the Permanent Council, to organise such contact on the occasion of the informal meetings. We also underline once more that the organization of such meetings does not and should not affect respective positions on the status of Kosovo with respect to the OSCE. We request that this practice should be resumed as a matter of urgency.
I request that this statement be attached to the journal of the day.
Thank you.
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