The fate of the OSCE will be decided in the coming weeks

The Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), whose Parliamentary Assembly continues in Yerevan, is in crisis, in particular, due to Russia blocking the budget for next year.

A member of the Ukrainian delegation, People's Deputy Yevgenia Kravchuk, told about this, the correspondent of Ukrinform reports.

"Now is probably the deepest point of the OSCE crisis, as Russia has blocked the budget and also does not agree with the Estonian presidency for 2024," Kravchuk explained.

So, in fact, the fate of the organization will be decided at the OSCE ministerial meeting in Skopje (North Macedonia), which will begin on November 30. There should be considered a way out of this situation.

According to OSCE rules, all 57 member countries must be present at the ministerial meeting. The Statute of the OSCE also does not provide for the possibility of excluding a country from being a member of the organization, despite its violation of international laws.

The rule of consensus applies in the OSCE, so in fact, all other members of the organization are its hostages. "That is, if one country is against it, it actually blocks all decisions, just as Russia previously blocked the monitoring mission in Ukraine, it also plans, according to some information, to block the monitoring mission in Moldova for next year," Kravchuk clarified.

According to the deputy, "the Ukrainian delegation is working precisely to make changes to the rules and procedures, to change the regulations so that it is possible to exclude a country that has started a full-scale aggression against another OSCE member country."

This meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly in Yerevan was also the first to which Russians did not come of their own free will, despite the fact that this country has a visa-free regime with Armenia.

"They simply did not come because they feel that they are losing their momentum. But at the same time, we have suspicions that it is beneficial for them to destroy the organization, since next year they have so-called elections and the OSCE unit that monitors the elections may not provide the information they need," Kravchuk believes.

At previous meetings of the members of the assembly, countries such as Canada, Poland, and Great Britain refused visas to Russians.

Author - Serhii Kolomiets, 20/11/2023