17 April 2015 MP Katarina Rakic takes part in the meeting of the SEECP Parliamentary Assembly Ad Hoc Working Group in Tirana

17 April 2015 MP Katarina Rakic takes part in the meeting of the SEECP Parliamentary Assembly Ad Hoc Working Group in Tirana

Friday, 17 April 2015

MP Katarina Rakic at Meeting of SEECP Parliamentary Assembly Ad Hoc Working Group in Tirana

Member of the of SEECP Parliamentary Assembly Ad Hoc Working Group Katarina Rakic took part in the second meeting of the SEECP Parliamentary Assembly Ad Hoc Working Group, held in Tirana, 17 April 2015, as part of Albania’s chairmanship of the organisation.


At the meeting of the Ad Hoc Working Group, the MPs and coordinators of 10 parliaments of SEECP member states, except Moldova and Macedonia, discussed the proposals for the budget and secretariat HQ in order to finalise the joint proposal for SEECP Parliamentary Assembly Plenary Session. The representatives of Pristina attended the meeting without officially voting on the proposals on the agenda.
Ad Hoc Working Group Member Katarina Rakic thanked the Albanian chairmanship on the budget proposal, supported by the Bulgarian Parliament, and the Turkish Parliament on its proposal. Rakic said that these are different budget proposals, but the National Assembly delegation’s official stance is that the organisation should strive for optimisation of expenses in view of the economic crisis plaguing the countries in the region. Therefore, the Serbian delegation did not submit amendments to the budget proposals because the issue is closely connected to the issue of secretariat HQ, which should be discussed first. Rakic said that what is important now is to come up with a single budget proposal, acceptable to all delegations, and forward it to the parliament speakers to adopt at the Plenary Session, 22-23 May 2015, in Tirana. A great many delegations endorsed this proposal, agreeing that a single cost-cutting budget proposal should be drafted.

In the second part of the Ad Hoc Working Group meeting the delegations discussed the SEECP Parliamentary Assembly Secretariat HQ. Katarina Rakic presented the official stance of the National Assembly’s delegation, saying that this was an important political issue which calls for consensus. She stressed that of the two candidacies submitted for SEECP Parliamentary Assembly Secretariat HQ by the Bulgarian and Turkish parliaments – for Sofia and Istanbul respectively, the National Assembly’s delegation supports the Turkish candidacy.

Seven delegations voted in favour of the proposal of Istanbul for secretariat HQ, viz. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Serbia, Croatia, Montenegro and Turkey. The Bulgarian proposal for secretariat HQ was endorsed by two parliaments – Bulgarian and Greek. The Romanian Parliament suggested keeping the rotating secretariat with the support of the network of national coordinators, and not setting up an international secretariat.

Since no consensus was reached on the two issues, it was agreed that the parliamentary delegations of Bulgaria, Turkey and Greece, and Romania, following bilateral contacts, take an official stance and inform the remaining delegations about their agreement on the budget proposal and secretariat HQ.

Tomorrow, the Standing Committee is to hold a meeting to discuss the agenda for the SEECP Parliamentary Assembly Plenary Session.



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friday, 29 march
  • 9.00 - the National Assembly Speaker meets with the Head of the EU Delegation to Serbia (National Assembly House, 13 Nikola Pasic Square, Speaker’s Cabinet)

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