On November 17, the 62nd General Assembly of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC) was held in Kyiv, at which a Declaration was approved condemning Russian aggression, with a demand for the Russian Federation to immediately withdraw all its military forces from the entire territory of Ukraine. The declaration also condemned Russian attacks on Ukrainian ports and grain infrastructure in the Black Sea and Danube and supported the creation of a special tribunal on the crime of Russian aggression against Ukraine.
PABSEC decided to create a working group to prepare amendments to the Rules of Procedure of PABSEC with the aim of creating an effective and reliable mechanism for consideration and decision-making regarding the suspension or expulsion of national delegations, if their countries grossly violate the goals and objectives of the BSEC Organisation, and the parliaments of these countries support such actions. As the head of the economic committee of PABSEC, People’s Deputy Oleksandr Marikovsky, reported in this context, the aggressor was forced to provide PABSEC with a written confirmation of the “suspension of participation” in the activities of the Assembly and the termination of payment of membership fees.
The head of the permanent delegation of Ukraine, Anna Purtova, in her speech at the General Assembly, noted that “Strengthening cooperation is an integral part of our work to guarantee security in the Black Sea. And this is impossible without the full restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine, including the Crimea”. At the invitation of the Ukrainian delegation to PABSEC, the expert of our Association, Professor Borys Babin, took part in the discussion on the sidelines of the General Assembly of urgent issues of the involvement of BSEC in the processes of reintegration of the Crimea after its deoccupation.
Among other things, together with the parliamentarians, the issues of the role of PABSEC in the formation of standards for standard agreements on international technical assistance and on investments regarding economic processes in the de-occupied territory were raised; development of effective insurance standards for relevant risks were pointed.
