MEETING OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE OF THE OSCE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEBLY.

MEETING OF THE STANDING COMMITTEE OF THE OSCE PARLIAMENTARY ASSEMBLY

The Hon John Vella, MP, Leader of the Maltese Parliamentary Delegation to the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, will be attending the meeting of the Standing Committee of the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly to be held in Vienna on the 13th and 14th January 2000.

The Parliamentary Assembly of the OSCE is composed of 317 Parliamentarians from 54 OSCE participating States. The Standing Committee is composed of the President of the Assembly, the nine Vice-Presidents, the Treasurer, the Chairs of three General Committees on Political Affairs and Security; Economic Matters; and Human Rights and the Heads of National Delegations.

The meeting will be opened by the President of the OSCE PA, Mrs Helle Degn, followed by an address by the OSCE Chairman-in-Office, Dr Wolfgang Schussel. The OSCE Secretary General, Ambassador Jan Kubis, and other senior OSCE officials will brief the parliamentarians on the latest OSCE developments followed by a question and answer session.

Participants will also be addressed by the President of the Austrian Nationalrat, Dr Heinz Fischer, and the Austrian Chancellor, Dr Victor Klima.

Amongst the subjects to be discussed are:

- the results of the Summit Meeting in Istanbul;

- the reports on election monitoring in Kazakhstan, Georgia and Russia;

- the report on the Parliamentary Conference on Sub-Regional Economic Cooperation Processes which was held in Nantes in October 1999;

- the report of the Ad Hoc Committee on Election Monitoring; and

- the report of the Democracy Team on Belarus.

 11.01.2000