OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Edi Rama takes action to ensure operational continuity ahead of imminent vacancies of Secretary General and Heads of Institutions roles

TIRANA / VIENNA, 17 July 2020 – In a letter to the OSCE’s 57 participating States today, Albania’s OSCE Chairmanship announced that the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office Edi Rama has taken prompt action to ensure the Organization’s operational continuity in light of the imminent vacancies of the OSCE Secretary General and the Heads of Institutions roles.

“The Chairmanship notes with regret that consensus on the reappointments of the Secretary General; and the Heads of Institutions could not be reached,” read the letter signed by Ambassador Igli Hasani, Chairperson of the OSCE Permanent Council and Permanent Representative of Albania to the OSCE. The three-year terms of the incumbents in these positions expire on 18 July.

“In light of this development, I wish to inform you that, as a necessary remedial response, the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Albanian Prime Minister and Minister for Europe and Foreign Affairs Edi Rama, under his overall responsibility for executive action and co-ordination of current OSCE business, has exceptionally authorized Ambassador Tuula Yrjölä, Director of the OSCE Conflict Prevention Centre and Deputy Head of the OSCE Secretariat, to exercise the essential functions of the Secretary General of the OSCE, effective from 19 July 2020 until the appointment of the Secretary General of the OSCE,” wrote Ambassador Hasani in the letter. This is “with the view to ensuring uninterrupted management of the human, financial, and material resources of the OSCE in the implementation of its mandated activities,” he added.

Ambassador Hasani also informed that the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office “expressed his full support to the most senior officials of the three Institutions in the following manner”:

To Katarzyna Gardapkhadze, “in her role as the First Deputy Director of the OSCE Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), in ensuring uninterrupted implementation of ODIHR’s mandate in the interim period until the appointment of the Director of ODIHR”;

To Christophe Kamp, in his role as the Director of the Office of the High Commissioner on National Minorities (HCNM), “in ensuring continuity” of the Office’s “routine functions” in the interim period until the appointment of the HCNM;

To Jürgen Heissel, in his role as the Director of the Office of the OSCE Representative on Freedom of the Media (RFOM), “in ensuring continuity of the routine functions of the Office” in the interim period until the appointment of the RFOM.

“In such challenging times, including operating in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, the Chairmanship is committed to providing political direction and co-ordination to the aforementioned officials as may be appropriate,” Ambassador Hasani concluded in the letter.