29/06/2016 President
“The Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Co-operation have many things in common,” said PACE President Pedro Agramunt, addressing PABSEC at its plenary session in Moscow today. He underlined that they shared the same geography – as all member states of PABSEC were also members of the Council of Europe – and pursued similar objectives, namely promoting international co-operation to foster stability, prosperity and peace.
“This implies that we have to respond to common challenges too, in particular the refugee crisis and combating international terrorism," he added, explaining the Assembly’s work and activities on refugees and migration as well as the #NoHateNoFear initiative recently launched by PACE, with a view “to mobilising politicians, important actors in society and ordinary citizens against terrorism, and the hate and fear that terrorists seek to create".
In conclusion, Mr Agramunt called for strengthened international co-operation and “more synergies and complementarity to effectively tackle these challenges”.