“The parliament of Bulgaria could bear the task of building an electronic platform for the purpose of facilitating the dialogue of the Process of Cooperation of South East Europe member countries”. This statement was made by Tsetska Tsacheva - chairperson of the National Assembly and president of the Parliamentary Assembly of PCSEE during the opening of the international conference in Sofia.

Tsetska Tsacheva has noted that the PA of PCSEE is not only the most recently created inter-parliamentary structure but one that aspires to establish modern means in the parliamentary dialogue being aware that this is the way of increasing the active participation and knowledge of young people on the way of imposing the supremacy of the law and the democratic institutions in the countries of South East Europe.

Tsetska Tsacheva has added that in the last year the parliament of Bulgaria has made a lot of efforts to widen the access of civil society to its activities and to include more young people in the process of public consultations and legislative decision-making.
 
The chairperson of the National Assembly stressed that today, more than ever, the regional dimension of the above strategic cooperation takes on prime importance. The attitude towards our countries is changing under the pressure of the migration crisis and the time had come for establishing new partnerships and dialogues. The overcoming of the current crisis and the prospects of development of our countries will depend on the consensus reached between us.
 
Tsetska Tsacheva underscored before the participants that is up to them to get back the trust of the citizens. In her view the way to get it back is through increasing the quality of parliamentary diplomacy and by enlarging the parliamentary cooperation. She insisted before the MPs from the 13 countries - members of the PCSEE, attending the forum: “the future depends, more than ever, on our common efforts to reach accords and go over our differences in the name of our citizens”.

Valentin Poriazov, deputy minister of foreign affairs, noted at the conference that the reinforcement of the connections between the countries in our region is of key importance and the realization of the projects in the transport and energy infrastructure is a major goal . He said the chairmanship of Bulgaria’s focus is on the economic development of the region. He also mentioned, as important topics, the freedom of media and expression, and the cultural heritage.  He underscored the European integration of the countries in the region has no alternative and reiterated Bulgaria will continue to support its neighbors on their way towards European Union integration.

The forum will discuss the priorities of the strategic partnership between the member countries of the PA of PCSEE, the role of the PA of PCSEE in Europe’s integration process, the establishment and management of the Assembly’s relations with other international and regional organizations.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the Process of Cooperation in South East Europe was founded on May 10th, 2014 in Bucharest during the annual meeting of the heads of parliaments of Albania, Bulgaria, Bosna and Hercegovina, Greece, Macedonia, Moldova, Romania, Slovenia, Serbia, Turkey, Croatia and Montenegro. The PA is the parliamentary dimension of PCSEE, a regional organization created in 1997.

Bulgaria has taken over the annual chairmanship in July 2015.

The forum of the PA of PCSEE is attended by the members of the EU parliament from Bulgaria Andrey Kovachev and Georgi Pirinski.