It is essential to make efforts to strengthen the institutional interaction between the Organisation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) and the European Union in all key areas, said Peter Kunev, Head of the Delegation of the National Assembly to the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC). On 25 and 26 October 2017, Bulgarian MPs took part in the meetings of PABSEC Legal Committee and the Committee on Culture, Education and Social Affairs in the Russian city of Rostov-on-Don.

In 2018 Bulgaria will take over the presidency of the Council of the EU and we hope that this will give a new impetus to the development of the relations between the two organisations, and help to improve dialogue and cooperation on topics of common interest, said Peter Kunev. He described the Black sea as one of the regions with active economic cooperation and said that BSEC was a unifying factor for Bulgaria, which fostered the use the huge potential of the markets of the organisation’s member states.

In his speech before the members of the Legal Committee, Peter Kunev acknowledged the role of PABSEC as a coordinator of national parliaments to strengthen democratic values, the rule of law, freedom of speech and free economic initiative. He emphasised that the main purpose of the Assembly was to assist national parliaments to enforce the necessary laws to implement joint projects and to enhance economic, political and cultural cooperation in the region.

The Head of the Bulgarian delegation to PABSEC recognised the good cooperation between BSEC member states in fighting trans-border organised crime, illegal human trafficking, terrorism, as well as in the area of disaster response. Our organisation has a significant contribution in strengthening security and stability in the region, added Peter Kunev.

PABSEC has 12 member states: Azerbaijan, Albania, Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, the Republic of Moldova, Romania, the Russian Federation, Serbia and Montenegro, Turkey and Ukraine.