OSCE PA Bureau reactivates election observation agreement

COPENHAGEN, 15 April 2013 – The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly bureau today decided to reactivate the 16-year-old agreement that guides election observation by the OSCE.

Four months after declaring the 1997 Co-operation Agreement no longer operable, the Assembly today reactivated the agreement and said it needed to be applied to ensure that the OSCE speaks with one voice in assessing elections among its 57 participating States.

The OSCE PA’s leadership accepted the recommendation of the Ad Hoc Committee on Transparency and Reform of the OSCE, led by Francois-Xavier de Donnea (Belgium) that the 1997 agreement be applied to the upcoming election observations in Bulgaria and Albania. The committee has worked since February toward improving co-operation in election observation. The Assembly will evaluate the experiences of those election observation missions at the Annual Session in July in Istanbul.

“We are all interested in reaching a solution to prevent problems from occurring in the future that we have had in the past,” President Wolfgang Grossruck said.

Under the agreement, the Special Co-ordinator, a senior representative of the OSCE PA appointed by the OSCE Chair-in-Office will lead the short-term observers and deliver the preliminary statement on behalf of the Organization.

"It is in the interest of our Assembly to reactivate the agreement and have both parties apply the 1997 agreement in good faith,” de Donnea said.

“Reviving the agreement is a good idea and it needs to be done,” Secretary General Spencer Oliver said. “We have always said the agreement is a good one, and we have always complied with the agreement.”

De Donnea said the Parliamentary Assembly would be looking for “positive signals” from partners at ODIHR to show a good practice toward strengthening co-operation during election observation missions.

This is a press release issued by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. The views expressed in this press release do not necessarily reflect those of the OSCE Chairmanship, nor of all OSCE participating States.

The OSCE Parliamentary Assembly is comprised of 320 parliamentarians from 55 countries spanning, Europe, Central Asia and North America. The Assembly provides a forum for parliamentary diplomacy, monitors elections, and strengthens international cooperation to uphold commitments on political, security, economic, environmental and human rights issues.