Ukraine mediation efforts top agenda as OSCE PA President visits Berlin

COPENHAGEN, 6 June 2014 – OSCE Parliamentary Assembly President Ranko Krivokapic has completed a visit to Berlin, where Ukraine mediation efforts topped the agenda in talks with the President of the German Bundestag and other parliamentary and government leaders. 

Krivokapic met with Bundestag President Professor Norbert Lammert on 6 June; Professor Maria Böhmer, the Minister of State at the Federal Foreign Office, on 5 June; OSCE PA Vice-President Doris Barnett and other members of the German Delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly; the leadership of several parliamentary groups within the Bundestag; and think-tank experts during his three-day visit.

In meetings, the OSCE PA President discussed the ongoing unrest in Ukraine and expressed his concern that time may be running out for diplomacy to resolve the crisis. He encouraged Germany to strengthen its role in mediation efforts.

Krivokapic also discussed the status of initiatives by the OSCE PA to promote constructive dialogue, including the facilitation of a recent meeting between members of the Russian and Ukrainian Delegations to the Assembly that was proposed by OSCE PA Vice-President Barnett and a planned second meeting on the sidelines of the PA’s upcoming Annual Session in Baku. Interlocutors expressed support for the PA’s efforts. 

In a keynote speech at Berlin’s Friedrich-Ebert-Stiftung, one of Germany’s oldest NGOs, Krivokapic further addressed the capacity of the OSCE and the Parliamentary Assembly to promote a solution to the crisis in the face of a “new Cold War mentality”: 

“Now, more than ever, we need [a] new quality of dialogue, and the OSCE is not only the best forum for such dialogue, it may very well be the only forum. But as we all know, the Organization’s potential is only as great as the political will of its participating States. And in the current crisis, we have unfortunately seen a lack of such will,” he said.

In his meetings, Krivokapic also highlighted the Parliamentary Assembly’s leadership of the recent OSCE short-term election observation mission to Ukraine. More than 100 OSCE parliamentarians from nearly 30 OSCE participating States observed the 25 May vote.

He also introduced the OSCE PA’s recently launched Helsinki +40 Project, an initiative to assess the relevance and effectiveness of the OSCE, including in preventing and resolving conflicts, and generate ideas for organizational reform.

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 323 parliamentarians from 56 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.