During the forthcoming 21-23 November plenary session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Co-operation (BSEC) in Baku, Azerbaijan will transfer the chairmanship in BSEC to Bulgaria, the Deputy of the Azerbaijani Parliament, Asef Hajiyev, exclusively informed Trend.
According to Hajiyev, the meeting will be presided by the Speaker of the Azerbaijani Parliament Oktay Asadov. On the first day of the General Assembly, the working organizations of the Assembly Bureau and the Permanent Committee - will meet to discuss the organizational issues and consider the activities of the BSEC in the second half of 2006.
The key topic of the discussions will be Ways of increasing the efficiency of the activities of the BSEC. The Assembly will organize debates on the report and recommendations prepared by the special Committee of the BSEC Parliamentary Assembly at the time of the fall meetings. The report Alternative energy sources and their possible application in the Black Sea region will be delivered by Bulent Tanl (Turkey) on behalf of the BSEC Committee for Economy, Trade, Technology and Ecology. Mircha Chopraga (Romania) will deliver the report Strengthening legislative base on protection of the intellectual property on behalf of the Committee for Law and Policy. The report of the BSEC Committee for Culture, Education and Social Affairs Globalization process and potential threats for the cultural diversity will be delivered by Olga Seliverstova (Russia).
Thereafter, the Assembly will confirm the recommendations on these issues. In addition, the members of the Assembly will hear the report regarding the activities of the Parliamentary Assembly and elect the Deputy Chairman of the BSEC Parliamentary Assembly.
At the conclusion of the Baku session, the Chairman of the Bulgarian Popular Assembly Georgi Pirinski will accept the chairmanship to the BSEC Parliamentary Assembly until June 2007. The Next Assembly General will take place in Sofia in June 2007.
According to Hajiyev, the Baku session brings together parliamentary delegations from BSEC member countries, Secretary General of the BSEC Permanent International Secretariat and other BSEC organizations such as the International Center for Black Sea Researches and Network of the Black Sea Universities. The observers and guests will be the representatives of the National Assembly and Senate of France, Knesset of Israel, European Commission, European Parliament, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Belarusian National Assembly, CIS Inter-Parliamentary Assembly, Parliamentary Assembly of Bulgaria and Russia, Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of Eurasian Economic Committee and Parliamentary Union of the Organization of the Islamic Conference member-countries.
Created in 1993, the Assembly brings together representatives of the parliaments from 12 BSEC member countries Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldavia, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.
According to Hajiyev, Armenia will not be represented at the forthcoming meeting.