53rd Meeting of the PABSEC Legal and Political Affairs Committee, Batumi, 15-16 May 2019
The 53rd Meeting of the PABSEC Legal and Political Affairs Committee was held in Batumi on 15-16 May 2019 upon the invitation of the Parliament of Georgia.
At the opening of the Meeting, the participants were welcomed by Mr. Tornike Rijvadze, Chairman of the Government of the Autonomous Republic of Ajara, Mrs. Tamara Gvaramadze, First Deputy Ombudsman of Georgia, Mr. Mikhail Emelianov, Chairman of the PABSEC Legal and Political Affairs Committee, Mr. Vahe Enfiajyan, Vice-Chairman of the PABSEC Economic, Commercial, Technological and Environmental Affairs Committee, Mr. Otar Danelia, PABSEC Vice-President and Head of the PABSEC Georgian delegation, and Mr. Asaf Hajiyev, PABSEC General Secretary.
The national delegations of Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine took part in the Meeting. Mr. Mikhail Emelianov, Chairman of the Committee (Russia) chaired the Meeting. The Committee discussed and adopted the draft Report and draft Recommendation on “The Role of Ombudsman Institutions in Strengthening Democracy in the BSEC Member States”. Ombudsmen from Moldova and Turkey also took the floor at the Meeting.
The Committee also considered and unanimously adopted the amendments to the PABSEC Rules of Procedure, Staff Regulations of the International Secretariat and the Financial Rules, which will be submitted to the Standing Committee for final approval at the 53rd Meeting in Baku on 19 June 2019 in the framework of the PABSEC General Assembly.
The Committee unanimously re-elected Mr. Ramaz Nikolaishvili, member of the Georgian delegation, to the post of the Vice-Chair of the Legal and Political Affairs Committee for the term of two years until May 2021.
The Committee also took note of the information on the current activities of the BSEC Organization, presented by Mr. Sergey Goncharenko, Deputy Secretary General of the BSEC Permanent International Secretariat.
In accordance with the Calendar for 2019, the next 54th Meeting of the PABSEC Legal and Political Affairs Committee will be held in Russia in September 2019. The main issue of the next meeting will be “Legal and Political Aspects of the Development of Transport Routes in the BSEC Region”. The Rapporteur on the Report will be Mr. Mikhail Afanasov, member of the committee from the Russian delegation.