Europe

Home page

Europe

OSCE Parliamentary Assemblyâ€™s Winter Meeting set to discuss European security architecture

16 February 2009 11:37 (UTC +04:00)

Baku. Viktoria Dementieva â€“ APA. More than 270 parliamentarians from the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly are scheduled to attend the Eighth Winter Meeting in Vienna 19-20 February, where the OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, Greeceâ€™s Foreign Minister Dora Bakoyannis, will address the opening session on Thursday morning, 19 February, APA reports.
One of the highlights during the Winter Meeting will be a special debate on Friday morning, 20 February, about the initiatives by Russian President Dmitry Medvedev and French President Nicolas Sarkozy for new European security arrangements. The OSCE parliamentarians will hear from Alexander Groushko, Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Russian Federation; Veronique Bujon-Barre, Deputy Director for Political and Security Affairs of the French Foreign Ministry; and OSCE PA President Joao Soares.
During the closing session on 20 February, the delegates will hear presentations by the OSCE PAâ€™s Special Representative on Gender Issues, OSCE PA Vice-President Tone Tingsgaard, and by Panos Kammenos, Greek Vice Minister of Mercantile Marine, Aegean & Island Policy, on â€œPiracy As a New Security Threat.â€
The Winter Meetingâ€™s agenda also includes a special presentation on Kazakhstanâ€™s preparations for its OSCE Chairmanship in 2010 by the Kazakh delegation, led by its head of delegation and OSCE PA Vice President, Kassym-Jomart Tokayev.