OSCE meeting supports parliamentary initiatives in SE Europe

TIRANA, 28 January 2003 - A two-day meeting of parliamentary experts from OSCE institutions and south-east European missions has just ended in agreement to boost support for projects aimed at tackling regional issues such as organized crime and trafficking, as well as economic and environmental issues.

Participants included representatives from the OSCE's Office for Democratic Institutions and Human Rights (ODIHR), the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, and the OSCE missions in Croatia, the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, Bosnia & Herzegovina, and Kosovo.

The meeting, hosted in Tirana by the OSCE Presence in Albania, on 27 and 28 January, was a part of the continuing process of OSCE regional co-ordination in south-eastern Europe within its so-called human dimension.

It was also an opportunity for five of the six OSCE missions in the region currently implementing parliamentary projects, to exchange programming ideas and methodologies and to compare resources and plan possible joint initiatives.

The OSCE missions agreed to co-operate further on implementing activities which would bring together parliamentarians at the committee level to discuss specific issues affecting the region as a whole, such as organized crime and trafficking, economic development and environment. These activities were seen as a means of promoting greater parliamentary involvement in legislative reform and as a way of facilitating opposition participation in the process.

A meeting was held with the Speaker of the Albanian Assembly, Servet Pellumbi, who shared with them his views on possible regional parliamentary initiatives. He also commended the role the OSCE Presence in Albania is playing in assisting the Assembly in building its capacity as an institution.