07 July 2007, 17:31
The Committee members considered 58 amendments to the draft resolution. The draft consists of two parts. Twenty six amendments were introduced to Part 1 "Energy Security", twenty four of them were adopted, one was turned down, and one more amendment was dismissed by the author in the course of discussion.
The representative of the parliamentary delegation of Ukraine Oleh Bilorus introduced eight amendments out of twenty four adopted. The Committee members voted for them by a majority. In particular, the author of amendments suggested supplementing the draft with a new paragraph that draws attention to the fact that "energy security is one of the most essential components of present-day world security, and is considered to be not only interparliamentary, but also transnational issue."
The Committee adopted one more amendment by O. Bilorus concerning the acknowledgement that "international parliamentary institutions, especially the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, have the crucial role in determining energy policy."
The Committee members have also considered the amendments to Part 2 of the draft resolution "Situation in Belarus."
The members of Belarus parliamentary delegation expressed surprise at the discussion of these amendments, because they regard the discussion of situation in Belarus as unacceptable. One of the delegation members Serhey Zabolotets believes that the report by the Committee member K. Lorentzen and adoption of the resolution are "absolutely unacceptable with relation to the principles of mutually respected dialogue and cooperation within the scope of the OSCE."
During the discussion of draft resolution the members of Belarus delegation emphasized that the documents, prepared by the Committee Speaker K. Lorentzen, are "incomprehensible and nonproductive in view of effective cooperation that has been recently established between Belarus delegation and Working Group of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly and which resulted in holding the seminar "The Analysis of Opportunities for the Republic of Belarus within the Scope of European Neighborhood Policy" in Minsk in March 2007.
The members of Belarus delegation are convinced that adoption of the negative resolution concerning Belarus at the Annual Session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly will stultify all the accomplishments and hamper further development of effective cooperation between the Parliament of Belarus and Working Group of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.
During the vote for the amendments to the draft resolution concerning the situation in Belarus, the Committee members adopted four amendments out of thirteen introduced by Belarus delegation.
Belarus delegation suggested excluding several paragraphs from the resolution, in one of which the Parliamentary Assembly is expected "to express regret that both Presidential election held on 29 March 2006 and election to the local authority held on 14 January 2007 did not correspond to the OSCE commitments concerning democratic election."
The Belarus parliament members also insisted on the exclusion of Paragraph 21, in which the Parliamentary Assembly is expected to express regret at effectiveness of the amended Electoral Code of Belarus on 10 October 2006, which, in particular, restricts the candidates´ rights of holding meetings with their electorate in the open air during election campaign.
The Committee members dismissed the suggestion of Belarus delegation concerning the exclusion of Paragraph 25 from the Resolution, in which the Parliamentary Assembly "strongly recommends Belarus Parliament and Government to introduce amendments into Electoral Code and ratify it in order to observe the OSCE standards."
The Committee dismissed the suggestion of Belarus parliament members concerning the following wording of Paragraph 27: "appeals to Belarus Government, as well as to the Governments of other OSCE participating States, for respect of the nongovernmental organizations that are vitally important for sound democracy."
Another dismissed amendment concerned the objections of Belarus delegation to the OSCE appeals to Belarus government for setting free all political prisoners, and carrying out an independent investigation or revising of cases concerning missing people.
The Committee adopted the Resolution "The Implementation of the OSCE Commitments" on the issues "Energy Security" and "Situation in Belarus" with amendments. The delegations of Belarus and the Russian Federation voted against the adoption of the Resolution.