Parliamentary Delegation to attend the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly Meeting in Warsaw

A Parliamentary Delegation led by the Hon. Anglu Farrugia and including the Hon. John Vella will be leaving for Warsaw, Poland, on Friday, 4th July, to attend the Sixth Annual Session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Organisation for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE). The Warsaw Session to be held in the Polish Parliament from the 5th to the 8th July will focus on enhancing the implementation of the commitments undertaken in the context of the OSCE, including the Helsinki Final Act (1975), the Charter of Paris (1990) and the Budapest (1994) and Lisbon Summit Documents (1996).

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 Inter-Parliamentary Assembly of the CIS and the European Parliament all have official observer status in the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. The area of the OSCE - the only existing pan-European and trans-Atlantic security organisation - stretches from Vladivostok to Vancouver, including the United States, Canada and all the countries of Europe and the Former Soviet Union.

During the opening Plenary Session, to be held on Saturday, 5th July, and chaired by Mr Javier Ruperez, Chairman of the Foreign Affairs Committee in the Spanish Parliament, delegates will be addressed by the President of the Republic of Poland, Mr Aleksander Kwasniewski, and Mr Niels Helveg Petersen, Chairman-in-Office of the OSCE and Danish Foreign Minister, amongst others.

During a special ceremony the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly's annual Prize for Journalism and Democracy will be presented.

During the meetings on 6th and 7th July the Assembly's Committees will consider three reports and draft resolutions put forward by the Rapporteurs of the three General Committees of the Assembly. The three reports to be discussed are the following:-

Implementation of the OSCE Principles - a Cornerstone of Common and Comprehensive Security in Europe;

Implementing Economic Goals of the OSCE in Europe;

Media: Suggestions for Implementation.

The closing Plenary Session will consider the resolutions of the three Committees and adopt a Final Declaration, as well as elect officers of the Assembly for the coming year.

The Maltese delegation returns to Malta on Wednesday, 9th July 1997.