5 June 2008

A 2 day Conference on the above topic was opened today in the National Assembly. Representatives from legislative institutions in the Region are attending the event, organized by the Regional Secretariat for Parliamentary Cooperation in South East Europe and the Bulgarian parliament with the assistance of “Friedrich Ebert” Foundation.
The Conference was opened by Vladimir Danchev, Head of the Secretariat.
The Deputy speaker of parliament Unal Lutvi extended a greeting address to the participants on behalf of National Assembly Chairman Georgi Pirinski. Mr Lutvi noted that the presence of prominent parliamentary members from all countries in the Region was an evidence of how seriously they take the challenges for the cooperation in South East Europe. He aired his conviction that the conference will contribute to the enhancement of the parliamentary cooperation in the region and to the closer affiliation of its countries with the goals and institutions of the European Union, namely the European Parliament and to the transformation of the whole region into an integral part of the European family.
The main topics of discussion were the: “Role and functions of parliaments in South East Europe”, “Cooperation between parliaments in the region – review of the accumulated experience and the practices proven to be most successful”, “Increasing the share of parliamentary involvement in regional initiatives for cooperation”, “Establishment of a strong network – future tools for regional cooperation between parliaments".
National Assembly Deputy speaker Unal Lutvi, Petra Bles, Chief adviser on parliamentary cooperation and former Deputy chair of the German Bundestag, Neven Mimica, Deputy speaker of the Croatian Parliament , Angel Naydenov, Head of the parliamentary group Coalition for Bulgaria and Vladimir Danchev , Head of the Regional Secretariat for Parliamentary Cooperation in South East Europe are among the lecturers and participants.