The 9th Plenary Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean kicks off this morning with the 26th Meeting of the Political Bureau of the Assembly. The Plenary Session is being held in the Principality of Monaco at the invitation of the President of the the National Council, H.E. Laurent Nouvion.
The Bureau Meeting will be followed by the separate meetings of the PAM Geopolitical Groups who will elect the members of the Bureau for next 2015-2016 biennium. At the end of the Plenary the new PAM President will be also elected. For the next two years, as per PAM statutory principle of rotation the President will be chosen from the Southern geo-political group.
UPDATE:
The Bureau adopted the Reports of activites for 2014 and the Financial Statement for the same year. The members also adopted the 2015 proposed budget and calendar of activities which will be fine tuned with the future Presidents of the 3 Standing Committees.
During the discussion the Bureau also expressed their full support to the cooperation between PAM and the UN, the Security Council and its operational departments on Counter terrorism, the European Institutions and the Arab League. The PAM Bureau also expressed its concern on the refusal by the French Ministry of the interior to grant the transit visa to all the members of the Syrian delegation to attend the Plenary Session in Monaco. The called upon the French Parliament and the PAM Secretariat to work together at resolving in the shortest possible time this issue for the benefit of a wider opportunity for dialogue with all member states in accordance with PAM’s statutes and mission.
With regards to the evaluation exercise of the Assembly, they confirmed the decision taken at the 25th Bureau Meeting in Rome last November, to establish an indipendent panel led by a senior MP with the assistance of a number of colleagues, the Secretariat itself, and in consultation with all member parliaments, and other international assemblies, in order to update PAM strategies to deal with the new scenarios in the Mediterranean region. The reccomendations of this Panel will be presented to the new PAM President for discussion at the next plenary session in Albania next year.
Finally the Bureau membersd expressed their appreciation to H.E. Francesco Amoruso (Italy) for his guidance during his two year presidency of the Assembly and thsanked him for his leadertship and commitment in this particularly difficult period for the region.
The Burueau concluded its work with a word of thanks and renewed confidernce to the PAM Secretariat for its continued assistance and quality of service in support of the work of the Assembly.