Zagreb - Meetings of the General Committee on Economy, Infrastructure and Energy and the General Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Security Cooperation were held in the Croatian Parliament on 17 and 18 March within the framework of Croatian Chairmanship-in-Office of the South-East European Cooperation Process.
Committee meetings were chaired and moderated by Predrag Matić, head of the Delegation of the Croatian Parliament to the SEECP Parliamentary Assembly who welcomed the participants expressing his wish for a constructive and interesting discussion resulting in adopting the Draft Report and Committees’ Resolutions. A member of the Delegation of the Croatian Parliament to the SEECP Parliamentary Assembly, Vedran Babić was also present.
Report by a member of the Committee, Muhamet Mustafa, MP from Kosovo Assembly was discussed on Friday afternoon at the meeting of the General Committee on Economy, Infrastructure and Energy. In his Report on energy dependency in the South East Europe, MP Mustafa reminded the present that the European Commission, in November 2016 presented a legislative package of measures called “Clean Energy for All Europeans”, a vision of a well-functioning integrated energy market that ensures secure and sustainable energy supplies at competitive prices. He added that it was necessary for the countries participating in the South-East European Cooperation Process to adopt a series of legislative acts which would guarantee the security of energy supply in the future, especially in light of their EU aspirations.
On Saturday morning meeting of the General Committee on Justice, Home Affairs and Security Cooperation was held. Vice – Speaker of the national Assembly of Serbia, Gordana Čomić, presented the Report on “Security Challenges in South East Europe – Regional Responses” emphasizing how important it was for Europe to learn in the middle of a challenging situation imposed by migrant crisis from the experiences of countries that in the nineties underwent armed conflicts. - Migrants and refugees do not come in waves, they come in rivers. Even if peace is established in war affected countries, there will always be new migrants forced to leave their homes due to climate changes, food and potable water search, said Čomić. She said that many countries even continents would not have existed if it weren’t for migrants.
Predrag Matić, head of the Delegation of the Croatian Parliament to the SEECP Parliamentary Assembly, said that during the Homeland War he was a refugee himself, expelled from his home asking for sensibility towards the migrant crises and for the human approach.
Meeting of the General Committee for Social Development, Education, Research and Science of the SEECP Parliamentary Assembly with the Report on “The exchange of university curriculum for professional prosperity of young people in South East Europe" is planned to be held in Istanbul at the end of April. Drafts of the Reports and Resolutions of the General Committees will be adopted at the plenary session of the SEECP Parliamentary Assembly in Zagreb, June this year.