The Thirty-Fourth Plenary Session of the PABSEC General Assembly was held in Belgrade on 1-3 June 2010. The meeting was opened by Prof. Dr. Slavica DJUKIC DEJANOVIC, PABSEC President, President of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia. The Message by Mr. George A. PAPANDREOU, Chairman-in-Office of the BSEC, Prime Minister - Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Hellenic Republic, was delivered by Mrs. Ioanna Efthymiadou, Charge d’affaires of the Embassy of the Hellenic Republic in Belgrade.
The General Assembly was attended by the national delegations of Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine. The BSEC and its related bodies were represented by the First Deputy Secretary General of the BSEC Permanent International Secretariat, and the Secretary General of the BSEC Business Council. Among observers and guests were representatives of the National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, the Senate and the National Assembly of the French Republic, the European Security and Defence Assembly/Assembly of the Western European Union (AWEU), the Central European Initiative – Parliamentary Dimension (CEI PD), the European Parliament (EP), the Interparliamentary Assembly of the Eurasian Economic Community (IPA EurAsEC), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus-Russia (PAUBR), and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE PA) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Turkic-Speaking Countries (TURKPA), the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States (PUIC), the Black Sea Universities Network (BSUN) and the Marmara Group Strategic and Social Research Foundation.
The topic of the General Debate was “The role of parliaments in strengthening the principles of international law”.
The participants stressed the role of parliaments in ensuring, on the one hand, introduction of international legal norms into domestic legal systems and ,on the other, contributing to the process of forming and developing the international legal system. Parliaments are active authors and participants in international law and bring their contribution to strengthening its principles. Participation in enhancing and improving international law is an important criterion for the political evaluation of parliamentary activities.
It was also stressed that international law is a key aspect for many regional conflicts and constitutes a stronger imperative in reducing the risk of solving disputes by force. The participants stressed the important role of the Parliamentary Assembly and of regional cooperation in general for strengthening the principles and norms of international law and expressed hope that realization of the accumulated experience will pave the way towards strengthening peace, stability and prosperity.
The PABSEC members conducted debates on the Reports and Recommendations drafted by the PABSEC specialized Committees during their spring meetings on: “Food security in the BSEC Member-States”, “The Legal Framework for State Regulation of Civil Aviation in the BSEC Member-States” and “Protecting women against violence in the BSEC Member-States”. The Assembly adopted Recommendations on these subjects addressed to the Parliaments and Governments of the Member Countries and to the Organization of the BSEC.
The Assembly discussed the activities carried out by the BSEC, in particular the ministerial meetings held during the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office (November 2009 – May 2010).
The members endorsed the Progress Report of the Parliamentary Assembly and adopted the budget for the Financial Year 2010.
In accordance with the Rules of Procedure, following the end of the Thirty-Fifth Plenary Session, on 3 June 2010, Mr. Mehmet Ali SEHIN, Speaker of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey, assumed the six-month term Presidency of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization of Black Sea Economic Cooperation. The next PABSEC General Assembly will be held in Trabzon on 9-11 November 2010.
