OSCE ponders ways to circumvent Russian vetoes

Russia’s refusal to cooperate within the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) is pushing its remaining members to adapt their way of working.

“When Russia puts up roadblocks, there’s no more now trying to abide by rules of procedure that were formulated when we operated as a consensus-based organisation,” US Ambassador to the OSCE, Michael Carpenter, responded to a question by EURACTIV.

Over the past months, Moscow has been obstructing the organisation’s budget approval, jeopardising the activities the 57-member-strong security body is leading around the world.

Established during the Cold War, the OSCE serves as the only European security platform bringing together Europeans, Russia, the United States, as well as Ukraine, and is mainly involved in conflict prevention, peace monitoring and election observation.

In April, Russia decided to “suspend the payment of 2023 contributions and to re-offset for this year the contribution Russia paid in 2022”, Russian Duma speaker, Vyacheslav Volodin, was quoted as saying by Russia’s state agency Interfax.

“We should not pay for what we did not take part in. If we are further prevented from working this year, we will demand to be refunded the contribution paid before,” Volodin then said.

“At this point, it is clear that Russia has no interest in abiding by, not just the rules of procedure, but by the fundamental principles on which we operate, and so we’re going to go around them,” Carpenter said.

All decisions have to be adopted via consensus, allowing Moscow to block any that would go against its interests.

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More issues than just one

To go around Russia’s veto, OSCE members have come up with creative solutions to avoid having to work with their Russian counterparts.

Since the beginning of the war “we’ve managed to work around Russia’s obstructionism, and I’m convinced that we’re going to do it on the budget as well”, Carpenter said.

But the OSCE’s budget issue is only one of the thorns Russia is putting into the organisation’s side, Carpenter said.

“That’s perhaps the least significant of the things it has done,” he said, accusing Moscow of having “kidnapped three OSCE national staff members who used to work for the special monitoring mission, […] stolen OSCE vehicles and […]  transgress[ed] every single one of the Helsinki Final Act principles”.

“It is waging a war of aggression against Ukraine, which is perhaps the most important thing in committing war crimes and crimes against humanity,” Carpenter said.

“The reality is that Russia is attacking the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe,” he added.

After Moscow vetoed the extension of the OSCE field missions in Ukraine existing prior to the war, “we have established a Support Program for Ukraine that is funded through voluntary contributions and that Russia cannot veto”, he told EURACTIV.

The plan is to work on humanitarian demining, providing psychosocial support, mitigating the environmental impacts of the war, and building capacity for accountability, he said.

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba called for Russia’s suspension from the organisation, in response to the war, but it remained unanswered.

Secretary-General Helga Schmid pointed out that discussion channels must remain open between the parties.

“One day, we will need conversation means again. And the OSCE is the only security organisation in which everyone important to the European security architecture sits at one table,” she said.

Moscow was expelled or suspended from a range of international organisations and fora after the invasion, such as the Council of Europe, the UN Human Rights Council, the anti-money laundering Financial Action Task Force, and the Eurovision Song Contest.

Impact outside Ukraine

“We will find ways to implement our commitments and to stand by the people of Ukraine.  And in every other country where the OSCE has field missions, we’re going to make clear that we can deliver for the people,” the US ambassador said.

The budget issue may, however, have an impact on some activities, President of the Parliamentary Assembly, Margareta Cederfelt, told EURACTIV in an interview.

“The budgets have to be in balance, and we can’t spend money we don’t have,” she said.

The OSCE’s activities should not be using the reserves available in the budget Cederfelt said but added “there needs to be adjustment in our spending and how we can increase our financial resources”, such as by increasing the members’ fees.

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