Dear friends, The Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC) celebrates, in 2023, 30 years since its establishment. This anniversary can be considered a landmark in the history of our Assembly, which has had a lot of accomplishments, but also difficult moments. We stood together over the years and tried to overcome them.
Established in 1993, the PABSEC brings together, nowadays, 81 MPs from thirteen Member States of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, revealing itself as a unique political forum of inter-parliamentary dialogue in the Black Sea Region.
In the PABSEC there are developed and developing countries and in this regard one of the main tasks is to achieve a high level of regional economic cooperation and to transform the Black Sea Region into a zone of economic prosperity, peace and stability.
The Black Sea Region is a bridge between Asia and Europe, being situated at the crossroads of major transportation routes from the East to the West (Silk Road) and from the North to the South (Viking Road).
At the same time, the Black Sea region is rich in energy resources and represents a key energy hub through which oil and gas, from the Central Asia and the Caspian Region are delivered to the world markets.
The main wealth of our region is the different people living here, with various cultures, religions and traditions. We are proud to live in such a multicultural region and our main task is to ensure economic prosperity, peace, stability and security in this area.
Unfortunately, there are serious problems and conflicts in the Black Sea Region, which does not allow the full use of the potential of the multilateral economic cooperation. The parliamentarians must join their efforts to put an end to the existing conflicts as soon as possible and alleviate the suffering of innocent people, on the basis of the international law, within the framework of the resolutions and decisions of the UN and other international organizations.
We are all one family and we have to bring our contribution to build a common future where there should be no place for hostilities. History has shown that confrontation yields to nothing positive, and in this respect, the Black Sea should not divide, but unite us all.