BUREAUCRATICS WILL KEEP ITALY FROM SECONDING

UNCLAS ROME 004000 SIPDIS SENSITIVE DEPT FOR EUR/RPM E.O. 12958: N/A TAGS: PREL PHUM UP IT OSCE SUBJECT: BUREAUCRATICS WILL KEEP ITALY FROM SECONDING OBSERVERS TO UKRAINE ELECTIONS REF: STATE 220961 ¶1. (SBU) OSCE Office Director Fabio Cristiani told poloff that a bureaucratic complication would make it impossible for Italy to second observers to monitor upcoming elections in Ukraine. He said that Italian legislation authorizing such funds came with a string attached - money for transportation, per diem, etc., could not be paid directly by the MFA to individual monitors, it had to be paid through another institution. In the past, ODIHR was handling that task for Italy (as it was for most other participating States). ¶2. (SBU) According to Cristiani participating States received a letter approximately eight months ago from the OSCE Secretariat indicating ODIHR would no longer take on the distribution function. For most states, this represented only a bureaucratic headache, but Cristiani's office is legally prohibited from distributing the funds. Cristiani said he has written to the ODIHR directorate asking for an exception for Italy for this "ten minute process" but has not received a positive response. Cristiani is attempting to find a work around, such as distributing the funds through local NGO or have a new line-item placed in the MFA's budget. However, he lamented, neither solution would be in place in time for either round of the Ukraine elections. SEMBLER NNNN 2004ROME04000 - Classification: UNCLASSIFIED