In Istanbul, on behalf of the Polish OSCE parliamentary delegation, MEP Agnieszka Pomaska negotiated the text of the conclusions on the food and energy crisis. They succeeded in getting 3 Polish amendments emphasizing Russia’s responsibility for causing the war and rejecting 2 Belarusian ones diluting the magnitude of the tragedy going on in Ukraine.
„Parliamentary diplomacy is an important, though unfortunately not very spectacular, part of parliamentary work. Many issues manage to be resolved in the privacy of the cabinets, and regular solicitation of our issues in the international forum can give concrete results. Of course, this does not apply to issues in which the Polish government merely stamps its feet without respecting fundamental issues such as the rule of law. But this is precisely not what the Istanbul conference was about.” – this is how MP Pomaska commented on the negotiations on her Facebook profile.
The OSCE is 57 countries, often with divergent interests. Not all issues, such as calling Russia’s invasion of Ukraine an invasion and the war a war, are so obvious to everyone. This time, with Russia absent, only the Belarusian delegation had doubts. At least we have no doubt whose side they are on.
