Member of the standing delegation of the Parliament of Montenegro and Chair of the General Committee on Social Development, Education, Research and Science of the Parliamentary Assembly of the South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP PA) Mr Radule Novović took part in the Fifth Plenary Session of the SEECP PA held last week in Ljubljana, within Slovenian Chairmanship-in-Office.
This year’s session, chaired by Mr Milan Brglez, Speaker of the National Assembly of Slovenia, was devoted to the topic: “SEECP PA perspective in the light of new geopolitical relations in Europe”, gathering parliamentarians from 13 member states of the South-East European Cooperation Process.
Among others, the session was attended by: Speaker of the Assembly of the Republic of Kosovo Mr Kadri Veseli, President of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia, Mr Talat Xhaferi, Chairman of the House of Representatives of the Parliamentary Assembly of BiH Mr Mladen Bosić, Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia Ms Maja Gojković, Deputy Speaker of the Croatian Parliament Mr Željko Reiner and Vice President of the Grand National Assembly of Turkey Mr Yaşar Tüzün.
The main topic of the discussion between the heads of parliaments and other parliamentarians was focused on the state of play and perspectives of regional organisations in Southeast Europe, as well as on the European perspective of individual countries participating in the SEECP PA, which are not members of the European Union, in the light of recent events in the EU, such as Brexit and the developments regarding Catalonia.
The session stressed that the perspective of European Union accession and membership should continue to be the main driver for reform, stability and security in the region and that the European Union enlargement process represents an irreplaceable tool for strengthening the commitment to European Union integration of the SEECP Participants which are on their path towards European Union membership. Also, it was assessed that the SEECP members should be committed to the dynamics of the European Union enlargement process on an individual merit-based approach, underlining the Union’s responsibility and commitment for keeping the enlargement momentum alive and strengthening regional connectivity and integration through initiatives at EU level.
The meeting was also dedicated to presentation and adoption of reports and resolutions prepared by the three SEECP PA general committees. On this occasion, MP Mr Radule Novović also addressed the participants, when he presented the report and resolution from the meeting of the General Committee on Social Development, Education, Research and Science.
The participants also discussed the issue of selection of the seat of the Permanent Secretariat of the SEECP PA, jointly noting that this issue should remain high on the agenda of this Parliamentary Assembly, while joint efforts should be made towards establishing of a fully functional Permanent Secretariat, which would contribute to increasing the efficiency of this initiative.
Ahead of the session, meetings of the following were held: General Committee on Social Development, Education, Research and Science, General Committee on Economy, Infrastructure and Energy, General Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Security Cooperation and Standing Committee.
The meeting of the General Committee on Social Development, Education, Research and Science, chaired by MP Mr Radule Novović, praised the efforts of the Parliament of Montenegro on drafting texts of reports and resolutions, as well as the excellent organisation of the meeting held on 24 February in Podgorica. Also, members of the General Committee unanimously decided, due to his successful chairing of the Committee in the previous period, to re-elected MP Radule Novović as the Committee Chair, for a new one-year mandate.
The Joint Declaration was adopted at the end of the Plenary Session, as well as the Work Plan of the SEECP Parliamentary Assembly for the upcoming one-year period.
