Asaf Hajiyev

News

57th Plenary Session of the PABSEC General Assembly, 22 June 2021

The 57th Plenary Session of the PABSEC General Assembly was held online on 22 June 2021.

The National Delegations from the parliaments of the Republic of Albania, the Republic of Armenia, the Azerbaijan Republic, Georgia, the Hellenic Republic, the Republic of Moldova, Romania, the Russian Federation, the Turkish Republic and Ukraine took part in the Plenary Session.

The Plenary Session was opened by Ms. Zinaida Greceanii, PABSEC President, President of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova. At the opening, Ms. Olta Xhacka BSEC Chairperson-in-Office, Minister of European and Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Albania addressed by video message.

As a part of the ceremonial part of the opening of the Plenary Session, the Assembly took the decision on the full-fledged membership of the Parliament of the Republic of North Macedonia in the PABSEC, which will officially start on 1 January 2022. Mr. Goran Misovski, Vice-President of the Parliament of the Republic of North Macedonia, addressed the participants with a speech.

In the final part of the opening ceremony, the PABSEC Presidency was transferred from the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova to the Parliament of Romania. The Romanian PABSEC Presidency begins at the end of the 57th PABSEC General Assembly. Mr. Ludovic Orban, incoming PABSEC President, President of the Chamber of Deputies of Romania addressed the participants.

As a sign of gratitude and overall support in the activities of the Assembly, Ms. Zinaida Greceanii, PABSEC President, President of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova was awarded the PABSEC Medal of Honour.

The Assembly approved the PABSEC Progress Report and the Minutes of the Fifty-Sixth Plenary Session, ratified the mandates of the new members of the Assembly from Georgia, Greece, Romania, Russia and Serbia.

At the Plenary Session, the activity reports were presented by Mr. Michael Christides, Secretary General of the Permanent International Secretariat of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC PERMIS), Mr. Dmitry Pankin, President of the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, Mr. Adrian Albu, Secretary General of the Union of Road Transport Associations of the BSEC Member States (BSEC-URTA), and Mr. Eden Mamut, Secretary General of the Black Sea Universities Network.

The participants were addressed by the representatives of the National Assembly and the Senate of France, the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, the Baltic Assembly and the Marmara Group Strategic and Social Research Foundation.

The members of the Assembly elected the PABSEC Vice-Presidents - Mr. David Sergeenko (Georgia), Mr. Lorant-Zoltan Sas (Romania), Ms. Anna Purtova (Ukraine) and the Vice-President in charge of Financial Matters Mr. Cemal Ozturk (Turkey).

Within the framework of the Economic, Commercial, Technological and Environmental Affairs Committee, the Assembly adopted the Report and the Recommendation 179/2021 “The Role of Parliaments in Preventing Human Trafficking - Economic Aspects”.

Within the framework of the Legal and Political Affairs Committee, the Assembly adopted the Report and the Recommendation 180/2021 “The Role of Parliaments in in Preventing Human Trafficking - Legal and Political Aspects”.

Within the framework of the PABSEC Cultural, Educational and Social Affairs Committee, the Assembly adopted the Report and the Recommendation 181/2021 “The Role of Parliaments in in Preventing Human Trafficking - Social Aspects”.

The Assembly discussed and adopted the Auditing Report for the 2020 financial year.

The Assembly also reaffirmed the decision of the Standing Committee to hold the 58th Plenary Session of the PABSEC General Assembly in Romania in November 2021.

The decision was also endorsed that the following issues will be considered within the framework of the autumn meetings of the committees:

Economic, Commercial, Technological and Environmental Affairs Committee: “Cooperation in the Field of the Pharmaceutical Industry in the BSEC Member States”

Legal and Political Affairs Committee: “Fostering digitalization and innovation in order to improve the legislative process and transparency of parliamentary activity”.

Cultural, Educational and Social Affairs Committee: “Objectives and Challenges of Cooperation in the field of Education in the Black Sea Region after the Pandemic”.