The Second Meeting of the Secretaries General of the Parliaments of the BSEC Member States, Istanbul, 6 March 2018
Upon the initiative of the PABSEC Secretary General, the second Meeting of the Secretaries General of the Parliaments of the BSEC Member States, took place in Istanbul, on 6 March 2018, with the participation of the Secretaries General of the Inter-Parliamentary organizations having observer status to the PABSEC.
The Meeting was organised by the PABSEC International Secretariat and it was attended by the Secretaries General of the National Parliaments of Armenia, Bulgaria, Romania (Chamber of Deputies), Turkey, the Deputy Secretaries General of the Parliament of Moldova and the Senate of Romania, the high-ranking officials from Albania and Greece, the Secretary General of the BSEC Permanent International Secretariat, the Secretary General of the BSUN International Permanent Secretariat and the Secretaries General of the Inter-Parliamentary organizations having observer status to the PABSEC, namely: the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States (PUIC), the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (I.A.O.), the Parliamentary Assembly of Turkic-Speaking Countries (TURKPA) and the Deputy Secretary General of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM).
The main topic of this annual meeting was “The 25th Anniversary of the PABSEC: Challenges and Expectations for Future Inter-Parliamentary Cooperation”. Mr. Asaf Hajiyev, PABSEC Secretary General, and Ambassador Michael B. Christides, Secretary General of the BSEC Permanent International Secretariat, welcomed the gathering.
The initiative of having PABSEC meetings in this format was welcomed. There was an exchange of views and ideas regarding the prospects for further strengthening the cooperation between parliaments and parliamentary assemblies and other stakeholders of the Black Sea cooperation process, aiming at enlarging the scope of the activities in the BSEC Region. The participants took note of lack of cooperation in concrete joint projects and initiatives between the national parliaments, for promoting the Black Sea Region and underlined the need to enhance the visibility of the Black Sea Region and the PABSEC’s identity and profile, as a relevant parliamentary diplomacy actor, at European, regional and international levels. It was noted with concern the need to be at the forefront of preventing and combating the root causes of global challenges, such as corruption, organized crime, terrorism and violent extremism.
In the second part of the meeting, there were proposals concerning the continuation and the development of the existing good cooperation practices.
The participants congratulated the Member State Parliaments of the PABSEC, on the occasion of the 25th Anniversary of the Assembly and thanked the PABSEC Secretary General, Mr. Asaf Hajiyev, for his initiative to host this important and useful event, highlighting the significance of organizing such meetings, dedicated to specific topics of cooperation, on a regular basis, at various locations.
At the end of the meeting, Mr. Ara Saghatelyan, Secretary General of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia, proposed to hold the next meeting of the Secretaries General of the Parliaments of the BSEC Member States, in Armenia, in 2019.