By Kamal Ali

The OSCE, a talking shop that is of little use to anyone, has arrived in Baku. Nearly 500 MPs accompanied by an army of support staff are in the Azerbaijani capital for the 23rd session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.

I attended the first day of the session on June 28. Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev delivered a speech, which was followed by panel discussions. Local and international media will report about all of these speeches and discussions in detail. I am going to share my impressions of the session as an ordinary man. 

The OSCE PA holds sessions, conferences and workshops around the world. It holds monitoring of elections and crisis situations. All this costs a lot of money. You can argue how effective these activities are. 

European MPs make laws that are in force in the European space. They make suggestions to member states and convey to heads of state the views of European voters. However, it is the government of a particular state that has the final say on issues.

-- The March 16 referendum in Crimea was held in gross violation of the Ukrainian constitution and the constitution of Crimea, which is an autonomous region within Ukraine;

-- We are concerned that the Russian Federation continues to violate its international commitments by illegally laying claim to eastern regions of Ukraine…

These are two out of 19 articles of a draft resolution to be discussed and probably adopted during the OSCE PA session in Baku. What is the use of this resolution for Ukrainians? While the MPs are debating it in Baku, criminal separatists are attacking the Ukrainian army, killing its soldiers. The army is shelling eastern regions of the country, killing people indiscriminately. 

The OSCE PA, above all, is about MPs and the support staff. They love and hate each other. They also joke with other, gossip, complain and brag. During the couple of hours I spent at the plenary session, I only heard the heads of the OSCE PA commissions and other structures praising their activities as “excellent” and “good”.

There was a lot of discussion on financial issues. It is no surprise given that visits by MPs and experts to a particular country costs a lot of money. The OSCE is funded by member states. During the sessions, the organization reports in detail about its spending.  

A report by the OSCE mission in Donetsk says that a female MP who was dispatched to the city was placed in a high floor of a hotel and was barred from meeting people or monitoring the situation in the region.

The MPs are afraid of confronting journalists. The man presiding over the meeting resented the fact that the editor of a European media organization accused him in a telephone conversation, saying that the OSCE PA mission in Ukraine was flying on a plane specially hired for them by an oligarch. 

I think members of the OSCE PA treasure their place because they travel a lot around the world to do their “job” and get paid good money for that. They would hardly agree to change such a lifestyle with another. 

I took many pictures of the session. As the saying goes, better seen that heard. 

Bakudaily.az