MALTA MEETING OF AD HOC COMMITTEE OF THE PARTIES TO THE CONFERENCE ON SECURITY AND COOPERATION IN THE MEDITERRANEAN

An ad hoc Committee of the Parties to the Conference on Security and Cooperation in the Mediterranean (CSCM) within the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) will meet in Malta on 19 and 20 January 2001 at the Mediterranean Conference Centre. The Ad Hoc Committee is composed of the Members of the CSCM Coordinating Committee and a representative of the Mediterranean Women Parliamentarians' Task Force.

The Ad Hoc Committee, which was established during the Third CSCM in Marseilles in April 2000, is mandated to consider in detail the observations received on the establishment of a Parliamentary Assembly for Mediterranean States on the basis of Working Documents submitted by the Maltese House of Representatives, the Mediterranean Women's Task Force, the Secretary General of the IPU and from other National Parliaments from Mediterranean countries. The Malta meeting will draw proposals for submission to the Inter-Parliamentary Union meetings to be held in Havana next April.

The opening session will be addressed by the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Hon Anton Tabone, who will also chair the meetings. Mr Anders B Johnsson, the Secretary General of the Inter-Parliamentary Union will attend the two-day meeting in Malta.

Parliamentarians from Algeria, Egypt, France, Italy, Malta, Morocco, Slovenia, Spain, Syria, Tunisia and Cyprus, as well as a representative of the Mediterranean Women Parliamentarians' Task Force, will be participating. The Maltese parliamentary delegation is composed of Hon Helen D'Amato and Hon George Vella