Asaf Hajiyev

News

The Fifty-Second Plenary Session of the PABSEC General Assembly, Yerevan, 27-28 November 2018

The Fifty-Second Plenary Session of the PABSEC General Assembly was held in Yerevan, on 27-28 November 2018, upon the invitation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia.

The Yerevan Session was attended by the parliamentary delegations of Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Turkey and Ukraine.

The Deputy Secretary General of the Permanent Secretariat of the Organisation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC PERMIS) and the President of the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank (BSTDB) participated in the General Assembly.

The President and the Secretary General of the Baltic Sea Parliamentary Conference (BSPC), the representatives of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (I.A.O.), the Parliamentary Union of the OIC Member States (PUIC), the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union of Belarus and Russia (PAUBR) took part in the General Assembly, as observers.

Mr. Ara Babloyan, PABSEC President, Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia and Mr. Ashot Hovakimian, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Armenia addressed the gathering at the Opening Ceremony. Mr. Asaf Hajiyev, PABSEC Secretary General, delivered a message of the Azerbaijani BSEC Chairmanship-in-Office.

The Heads of the PABSEC Delegations of Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Greece, Moldova, Romania and Serbia were awarded with the PABSEC Medal of Honor.

During the first day of the Plenary Session, the members of the Assembly approved the Progress Report and the Minutes of its Fifty-First Plenary Session and ratified the credentials of the new members of the Assembly from Armenia, Greece, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine. The Assembly took note of the information about the activities of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation and the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank. The representatives of the Parliamentary Assemblies and the International Organizations delivered their statements.

The members of the Assembly elected Mr. Cemal Ozturk, Head of the PABSEC Turkish Delegation for the position of PABSEC Vice-President in charge of Financial Matters to complete the term of office of Mr. Ramazan Can, former PABSEC Vice-President, until July 2019. The members of the Assembly re-elected Mr. Daniel Dulca (Romania) as PABSEC Deputy Secretary General for Interparliamentary Relations and Protocol and Mr. Fuat Kucukaydin (Turkey) as PABSEC Deputy Secretary General in charge of Administrative and Financial Matters, for a three-year term.

Mrs. Roberta Alma Anastase, Acting PABSEC Vice-President in charge of Financial Matters, presented the draft Budget for the Financial Year 2019 which was adopted by Assembly. The Assembly decided to set up the Draft Budget and Auditing Commission (Greece, Moldova, Romania) which will prepare the Draft Budget for the 2020 Financial Year and the Auditing Report for the 2018 Financial Year.

On first day of the plenary session, the members of the Assembly debated and adopted the Reports and Recommendations drafted by the PABSEC Committees during their autumn meetings: “Development and Support of the Small Business Enterprises in the BSEC Member States”, “Role of Trade Unions in Strengthening Economic Cooperation in the BSEC Region” and “Current and Future Perspectives in the Development of Tourism in the BSEC Region”. At the Plenary Session it was discussed “The Role of Parliaments in the Development of Regional Economic Cooperation”, as the main topic of the General Debate.

Mr. Ara Babloyan, PABSEC President and Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia addressed the gathering at the Closing Ceremony and handed over the PABSEC Presidency to Mr. Eldar Guliyev, Head of the PABSEC Azerbaijani Delegation. Mr. Guliyev delivered a speech and invited all participants to attend the next PABSEC General Assembly to be held in Baku, in June 2019.