From 1 to 3 June, the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia hosted the 35^th General Assembly of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC), chaired by Serbia in the first half of 2010. Parliamentary delegations of 12 Black Sea region countries took part in the session.

The plenary session was opened by National Assembly Speaker Prof. Dr Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic, who stressed that Serbia strongly supports stability in the region, development of good-neighbourly relations, as well as improvement of the conditions for economic and political cooperation. She emphasised that Serbia is a democratic country that sees its future in alliance with other European countries and wishes to cooperate with all friendly countries in the world.

Ioana Efthimiadou, Charge d’Affaires of the Greek Embassy in Serbia read the Greek Foreign Minister Yorgos Papandreou’s opening speech that emphasised the political and economic importance of the Black Sea region for Greece. He stressed that Greece, who had taken over the chairmanship of the Organisation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation on 1 June, was interested in its development and contribution to economic cooperation in the region.

The main topic of the 35^th PABSEC General Assembly was the Role of Parliaments in Strengthening the Principle of International Law, and the heads of all the parliamentary delegations of the participating countries took part in the debate. They also considered the Report on the activities of the Organisation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation in the previous period, and certain economic, commercial, technological and environmental issues were also on the agenda. BSEC adopted relevant recommendations regarding the Report on the legal framework for state regulation of civil aviation in BSEC member states.

The participants of the gathering discussed and adopted recommendations on food safety and protection of women against violence in BSEC member states. They also discussed cultural, educational and financial issues and preparations for the PABSEC autumn session to be held in Istanbul.

Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia Slavica Djukic-Dejanovic officially handed over PABSEC chairmanship to Nevzat Pakdil, Deputy Speaker of the Turkish Grand National Assembly. In her final address she stressed that PABSEC is an important forum for interparliamentary dialogue among the countries of the wider Black Sea region. She pointed out the important role parliaments play in strengthening the principle of international law and repeated that Serbia’s respect for the basic principles of international law and the United Nations Charter, particularly the principles of territorial integrity and sovereignty of the UN member states, is a well-known fact.

PABSEC Vice-Presidents Vassilios Geranidis and Mehmet Cicek, Turkish Parliament Deputy Speaker Nevzat Pakdil and Aleksey Kudriavtsev, PABSEC Secretary General thanked the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia and its Speaker for the successful organisation of the 35^th PABSEC General Assembly expressing pleasure that the decisions made at the session would contribute to the development and strengthening of the main goals of the parliamentary institution.

Parliamentary representatives of 12 countries of the wider Black Sea region took part in the 35^th PABSEC General Assembly. In addition to the members of the standing delegation of the National Assembly of the Republic of Serbia to PABSEC, Albania, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Armenia, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine also took part in the conference.