The meeting focused on the Working Group’s Activity Report for the duration of Serbia’s presidency of the South East Europe Cooperation Process, from June 2011 to June 2012. The document dealing with the modalities for the institutionalisation of the parliamentary cooperation between South East European countries, drafted by the National Assembly and incorporated into the annual report, received the most attention. The report analyses the proposals submitted by the Turkish and Bulgarian parliaments, as well as the third, compromise solution proposed by the parliament of the presiding country. The participants of the Working Group meeting discussed, among other things, the goals and guidelines for the SEECP Parliamentary Assembly, composition and organisational structure, presidency, manner of decision-making, secretariat, budget and other issues important for the work of the future institutionalised parliamentary structure.
It was agreed that decisions should be made by consensus, with the conditions for reaching said consensus being defined in the Rules of Procedure. Also, the members of the Working Group agreed that there should be three standing committees and ad hoc working groups for the realisation of concrete types of interparliamentary cooperation between the member states. The final decision on all issues relating to the organisation and work of the Parliamentary Assembly will be made in the upcoming period, with the participation of all the SEECP member states. As of July 2012, Macedonia took over the presidency of the Working Group of the South East Europe Cooperation Process Parliamentary Dimension.
The participants of the meeting accepted, with amendments and modifications, the Report of the SEECP Parliamentary Dimension Working Group for the duration of the presidency of the Republic of Serbia. On the occasion, it was said that, in the course of its presidency, Serbia was very dedicated to promoting democratic values and European standards as the basis of regional development and parliamentary cooperation between the SEECP member states.
The meeting was chaired by Gordana Comic, Working Group member and Deputy Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia, and included the national coordinators and representatives of the parliaments of Bulgaria, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Slovenia, Montenegro, Romania and Greece, as well as the representatives of the Regional Cooperation Council and Regional Secretariat for Parliamentary Cooperation. The meeting was organised with the support of the Friedrich Ebert Foundation.
At the end of the Sixth Meeting of the Working Group, which officially brought the National Assembly’s presidency of the SEECP Parliamentary Dimension to an end, the participants adopted the possible compromise proposal of the SEECP Parliamentary Assembly (you can view the consolidated version here).