Parliamentary Delegation to attend the 8th Annual Session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly

A parliamentary delegation led by the Hon John Vella and comprising the Hon Frederick Azzopardi and Hon George Vella will be attending the Eighth Annual Session of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly to be held in St Petersburg between the 6th and 10th July 1999.

The 317 members of the Assembly include leading Parliamentarians from 54 participating states. In addition, the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, the Assembly of the Western European Union, the North Atlantic Assembly, the Interparliamentary Union, the Interparliamentary Assembly of the CIS and the European Parliament all have official observer status in the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly.

The opening plenary session will be addressed by the President of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, Ms Helle Degn; by the Chairman of the State Duma of the Russian Federal Assembly, Mr Gennady Seleznev and by the Governor of St Petersburg, Mr Vladimir Yakovlev. The Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE, Mr Knut Vollebaek, will also address members and answer questions from the floor.

The three Committees of the Parliamentary Assembly - the Committee on Political Affairs and Security; the Committee on Economic Affairs, Science, Technology and Environment and the Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions - will consider three reports and draft resolutions. These reports and resolutions deal with different and interrelated aspects - political, economic and human rights - of the central theme of the Eight Annual Session: Common Security and Democracy in the 21st Century.

A number of proposals for supplementary items have been received by the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. These concern the situation in Kosovo; the situation in Belarus; the role of the OSCE in crisis prevention and conflict settlement; the development of rule of law and human rights in the Russian Federation; the trafficking of women and children; the assassination of Galina Starovoitova; and a supplementary item on correcting the democratic deficit of the OSCE.