A.Parubiy proposed to hold a joint conference of the Ukrainian Parliament and the PABSEC on economic issues “The Black Sea and the Silk Road”

The Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Andriy Parubiy, as PABSEC President, submitted a proposition to hold next spring a joint committee conference of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation states on economic issues “The Black Sea and the Silk Road”. The proposal was made at a meeting with Asaf Hajiyev, the PABSEC Secretary General. The Chairman keenly appreciated the work of the international organization and reminded that there is the 50^th anniversary session of the PABSEC Assembly to take place this year.

In turn, Asaf Hajiyev stated that this year is very special for the PABSEC organization as it is the 25^th year of its formation. He also offered Ukraine to sign the Independence and Borders Inviolability Declaration, approved by the PABSEC, during the anniversary session of the PABSEC General Assembly this November in Kyiv. He voiced his hopes that the Ukrainian presidentship would be successful. “As an economic organization, we are playing a great role in the region by representing all the regional interests. We are interested in building new transport networks and the railways, in particular, through Ukraine’s territory,” he stressed.

According to the Ukrainian Chair, the assembly session agenda seems to be “important and very interesting”. The Black Sea area is the very centre point of the major traffic road intersections, so “we need to develop a multidirectional cooperation”. It is also worth to involve Baltic and Scandinavian countries in that cooperation.

The Chairman stressed Ukraine is also interested in putting the Silk Road from China through Ukraine’s lands. He, thus, submitted a proposition to hold next spring a joint committee conference of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation states on economic issues under the title “The Black Sea and the Silk Road”.

Nota bene

In February 26, 1993 Ukraine was one of the first among the Black Sea Coast states to sign the Declaration on the Establishment of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC). As per the Rules of Procedure, the chairing on the Assembly is to alphabetically rotate from one to another semiannually. The last 49^th Istanbul session in July became the one to hand over the chair to Andriy Parubiy for his tenure. The results of his PABSEC’s presidency will be reviewed at the 50^th meeting of the PABSEC General Assembly which is scheduled to take place in Kyiv in the late November.

About PABSEC in brief

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC) was created as a result of the major political changes in the late 1980’s, when the nations of the Black Sea region re-emerged on the world scene. The search by the countries of the region for ways of meeting challenges of national development and European integration paved the way for combining their efforts with a view to turning the Black Sea region into the area of stability, prosperity and peace. Taking advantage of common denominators such as geographic proximity and shared cultural and historical heritage, the countries of the region have expedited the establishment of bilateral and multilateral relations.

The Summit Declaration of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation and the Bosphorus Statement, signed in Istanbul on 25 June 1992, defined the basic principles and objectives of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), formally instituting a new regional cooperation process with participation of eleven countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Republic of Moldova, Romania, the Russian Federation, Turkey and Ukraine. On 26 February 1993 in Istanbul, the Speakers of the Parliaments of nine countries – Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Republic of Moldova, Romania, the Russian Federation, Turkey and Ukraine – adopted the Declaration on the Establishment of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC).

Principal aims

Being an inter-parliamentary consultative body of the BSEC, the Assembly has been uniting the efforts of national parliaments to pursue the following aims, as stated in the preamble of the PABSEC Rules of Procedure:

- to secure the understanding and adoption by the peoples of the ideals and aims of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation;

- to provide a legal basis for economic, commercial, social, cultural and political cooperation among the member countries;

- to enact legislation needed for the implementation of decisions taken by the Heads of State or Government or by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs;

- to provide assistance to national parliaments so as to strengthen parliamentary democracy;

- to promote cooperation with other international and regional organization.

Cooperation with other International Organisations

The PABSEC has established contacts with various international organizations and parliamentary assemblies, many of them having also the observer status with the PABSEC. Among them are: the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of Commonwealth of Independent States (IPACIS), the European Parliament, the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), the NATO Parliamentary Assembly, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union Belarus-Russia (PA UBR), the Parliamentary Dimension of the Central European Initiative (PD CEI), the Parliamentary Union of the Islamic Countries (PUIC), the Interparl?amentary Assembly of Orthodoxy (IAO), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Turkic-Speaking Countries (TURKPA), the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference (BSPC), the Parliamentary Network on the World Bank and Parliamentary Assembly of the South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP PA). The Assembly also obtained Observer Status to Asian Parliamentary Assembly (APA) and signed the Protocol of Cooperation with the IPACIS and the Memorandum of Understanding with the Parliamentary Assembly of Mediterranean (PAM), which meant to speed up regional inter-parliamentary cooperation.