The Parliamentary Assembly of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC) held the Thirty-First Plenary Session of its General Assembly on 9-11 June in Athens under the Chairmanship of Mr. Dimitrios G. SIOUFAS, PABSEC President, President of the Hellenic Parliament.
Within the framework of marking its 15th Anniversary, the Meeting of the Presidents of Parliaments of the PABSEC Member Countries – the Parliamentary Summit “Achievements and Prospects of Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation in the Wider Black Sea Region” was held on 9 June 2008, on the eve of the General Assembly. The participants in the Summit adopted a Declaration “On the Fifteenth Anniversary of the Establishment of the PABSEC”.
The Athens Session was attended by parliamentary delegations from the PABSEC Member Countries, the Secretary General of the BSEC Permanent International Secretariat, the Director General of the International Centre for Black Sea Studies. Among observers and guests will be representatives of he National Assembly of the Republic of Belarus, the French Senate and National Assembly, the National Council of the Slovak Republic, the Assembly of the Western European Union, the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference, the European Parliament, the Interparliamentary Assembly of the Commonwealth of the Independent States, the Interparliamentary Assembly of the Eurasian Economic Community, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy, the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States, and the Marmara Group Strategic and Social Research Foundation.
The Plenary Session had as the main topic of the General Debate “The EU and the Black Sea Synergy”.
The Assembly conducted debates on the Reports and Recommendations drafted by the PABSEC specialized Committees during their spring meetings.  The Report on “Foreign Investment and Economic Growth in the BSEC Member States” was presented by Mr. Marcel Raducanu (Moldova), Member of the PABSEC Economic, Commercial, Technological and Environmental Affairs Committee.  Mr. Michael Yemelianov (Russia), Chairman of the PABSEC Legal and Political Affairs Committee, presented the Report on “The Role of the Parliaments of the BSEC Member States in Fighting International Terrorism”.  The Report of the PABSEC Cultural, Educational and Social Affairs Committee on “Social Cohesion within the BSEC Member States: A Contribution to Political Stability” was presented by Mr. Styopa Safaryan (Armenia).
The Assembly adopted Recommendations on these subjects addressed to the Parliaments and Governments of the Member States and to the Organization of the BSEC.
The participants also reviewed the results of the various meetings of the BSEC Member States during the Ukrainian Chairmanship-in Office (November 2007 -April 2008), including the meetings of the ministers of energy and transport, the Special Meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the BSEC Member States and the Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the EU Member States and the States of the Black Sea Region (Kyiv, 14 February 2008), and the 18th Meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the BSEC Member States in Kyiv on 17 April 2008.
The members also considered the Progress Report of the Parliamentary Assembly and elected Mr. Alexey Kudriavtsev as PABSEC Secretary General.
The working bodies of the Assembly - the Bureau and the Standing Committee – met to discuss mostly organizational matters, in particular to review the PABSEC activities in the first half of 2008.
At the end of the Athens Session the PABSEC rotating Presidency was taken over for the next six months by Mr. Marian LUPU, President of the Parliament of the Republic of Moldova. The next General Assembly is to be held in Chisinau on 3-5 November 2008.