The Twenty Sixth Meeting of the Economic, Commercial, Technological and Environmental Affairs Committee, Bucharest, 22-23 March 2006

The Twenty-Sixth Committee Meeting was held in Bucharest on 22-23 March 2006. The Members of the Committee discussed the Draft Report on “Cooperation in the fight against economic crime in the Black Sea region” and Draft Recommendation 87/2006 on the same subject.

The BSEC members-states are facing new challenges in terms of cooperation measures in the fight against economic crimes. Growing economic activity in the region naturally entails an increase in criminal activity, especially in its organized forms. The BSEC Economic Agenda defines that resolving the problem of organized crime, especially in the form of corruption, is important for establishing of an economic environment attractive to international cooperation and to foreign private investment. Analysis of the national strategies in the BSEC Member States shows that during past decades they have been unified in many directions regarding the fight against economic crime. The participants welcomed the fact that in the recent years the BSEC Member States have adopted a number of measures concerning adjustment of national legislation in combating economic crimes to international standards, and also application of anti-corruption and anti-money laundering measures.

Due to the major impact of spreading and contamination by the bird flu in the Black Sea region, the participants discussed the “The Bird Flu and Coordination Measures against a Possible Pandemic in the BSEC Member States”. Experts from the national delegations made presentations on this issue informing participants about the current situation in their respective countries. After discussions, the participants decided to finalize the text of the draft Recommendation on “Cooperation in combating the bird flu in the Black Sea region” afterwards and submit it to the approval of the Ad Hoc Committee Meeting and adoption by the 27^th Plenary Session on 7-8 June in Yerevan.

The members of the Committee elected Mr. Andrian-Sirojea Mihei (Romania) as Vice-Chairman of the Committee for a term of office of two years.

The Twenty-Seventh Meeting of the Committee will be held in Giresun (Turkey) on 27-28 September 2006. The main subject on the Agenda will be “Alternative energy sources and possibilities of their application in the Black Sea region”. Rapporteur on the Recommendation will be Mr. Ali Temur, Chairman of the Committee and on the Report, Mr. Bulent Tanla, Member of the Committee (Turkey).