The Messenger, Georgia
March 23 2006

New EU Caucasus representative pledges stronger conflict resolution
focus
In his first official visit to Tbilisi Peter Semneby meets with
Saakashvili, Noghaideli, and other high-ranking Georgian officials

By Anna Arzanova

In his first visit to Georgia the newly appointed European Union
Special Representative to the South Caucasus Peter Semneby promised
Tuesday to take a stronger position on conflict resolution and to
clarify Russia’s role in the process.

“My mandate is different as it includes a stronger focus on the
resolution of the conflicts. In reality there is nothing that I can
do that my predecessor was not able to do because the mandates are
broadly formulated, but the current signal from the European Union is
that we intend to engage more firmly in the conflict resolution
process,” Semneby stated at his inaugural press conference on
Tuesday.

Semneby is replacing the Finnish diplomat, Heikki Talvitie, who
became the first the EU Special Representative to the South Caucasus
in July 2003 and retired last month after a tenure of almost three
years.

Semneby’s mandate includes furthering EU policy objectives in the
South Caucasus by assisting Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in the
implementation of political and economic reforms – especially
regarding the rule of law; democratization; human rights; good
governance development; and poverty reduction.

The mandate also includes conflict prevention in the region and the
peaceful settlement of conflicts by promoting the return of refugees
and IDPs as well as encouraging and supporting further cooperation
between the countries in the region in all spheres such as economy,
energy and transportation.

On March 20-21, Semneby held several meetings with high-ranking
officials. He met with the President of Georgia Mikheil Saakashvili,
Chair of the Supreme Court Kote Kublashvili and other representatives
of the executive and legislative branches as well as civil society
representatives.

In accordance with his mandate, during a March 20 visit to Prime
Minister Zurab Noghaideli on Semneby discussed the issues of
Georgian-Abkhaz and Georgian-South Ossetian conflicts and developing
the Georgian “Action Plan” within the framework of the European
Neighborhood Policy.

After meeting with Noghaideli, Semneby told journalists that nothing
concrete had been established and that he could not predict the
results of the forthcoming round of Georgian-EU negotiations
regarding the resolution of these conflicts.

On March 21 Semneby met with Minister of Justice Gia Kavtaradze on
March 21. The subject of discussion at the meeting was the bill on
property restitution of the victims of the Georgian-South Ossetian
aggressions, presented by the Georgian Justice Minister to the Venice
Commission a few days ago.

Later, speaking at the press conference March 21 about the Joint
Control Commission (JCC), Semneby stated that it is a little bit
early to speak about the new JCC format. He noted that though the
current format does not provide for the EU’s participation, it is not
clearly determined what position the EU will take with regard to the
JCC. Currently, JCC is represented by Georgian, South Ossetian, North
Ossetian and Russian sides.

“The European Commission is already present when economic issues are
discussing in the JCC whether the EU is going to take a role on the
political discussion in the future is something I am not able to
answer at this stage. I can only say that the EU will take a great
interest and will be closely associated with whatever happens in the
JCC,” Semneby added.

Peter Semneby has most recently served as Head of the OSCE Mission to
Croatia during 2002-2005. Working on this position, Semneby and his
staff assisted Croatia with post-conflict rehabilitation and the
managing of the most important political requirements for the EU
membership, including refugees return, minority rights, judicial
reform, war crimes trials, police reform, media legislation,
electoral legislation and civil society development.

As head of the OSCE Mission to Latvia during 2000-2002, he was a key
player in developing policies, legislation and institutions on a
range of receptive issues of the Russian-speaking minority. Semneby
was responsible for European Security and Defense Policy in the
Swedish Ministry for Foreign Affairs from 1997-2000. Before working
in the sphere of European Security and Defense Policy, he served in
the Swedish embassies in Germany, Ukraine and the USSR.

Ambassador Semneby has had the opportunity to work and travel in the
South Caucasus region on many occasions during his career.

Semneby arrived in Tbilisi on 18 March and left the country on March
22 for Munich.