A high-level delegation of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean attended the United Nations Summit on the Post 2015 Agenda and the 70th General Assembly of the UN in New York, from 26 September to 2 October 2015.
The delegation, which covered all the events on a rotational basis, included Hon. Michel Vauzelle (France), Sen. Francesco Maria Amoruso (Italy), Hon. Nathalie Amoratti Blanc (Monaco), Hon Ninel Peia and Ionas-Florin Urcan (Romania), Mr. Mohammed Abu El Enein (Egypt – PAM former President), Mr. Majalli Whbee (Israel – PAM former vice-President), Prof. Angelo Riccaboni (Italy – Senior member of the PAM Academic Platform), Amb. Sergio Piazzi, PAM Secretary General, and Amb. Shaukat Fareed, PAM Permanent Observer to the United Nations in New York.
In addition to the debates of the main agenda, the PAM delegates attended a number of side events organised by either UN member states or the UN itself. These included the UNSG Special meeting on Migration, the Ministerial meeting of the Alliance of Civilisations, the Qatari High-level Breakfast on Development, the Special meeting on Syria organised by the Delegation of Luxembourg, among others.
The mission to New York was also an excellent opportunity for a number of bilateral meetings and exchanges. These included, inter alia, the USG of DESA, Mr. Wu Hongbo; the ASG for Humanitarian Affairs, Ms. Kyung-was Kang; the ASG for Counter-terrorism, Mr. Jean-Paul Laborde; as well as several Executive Heads of UN Agencies and Programmes, and the IOM; the UN Special Envoys for Libya, Syria and Lebanon; and a number of Heads of State and Government, and Ministers attending the New York events.
In the course of the discussions, PAM was requested to assist in the implementation of the 20-30 Programme on Sustainable Development; the implementation of the recommendations of the side event, organised by Italy, on the Protection of Cultural Heritage, as well as to coordinate an assessment of the implementation by National Parliaments of the Euro-Mediterranean region of UN Security Council Resolutions 2170, 2178 and 2199. PAM will follow-up on these requests with the organisation of three dedicated UN/PAM joint debates in the course of the first semester of 2016.