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Fighting terrorism, managing natural resources, fighting climate changes and migration crisis represented the main debate topics of the 16th Winter Meeting of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE) Parliamentary Assembly (PA), which took place in Vienna on 23 and 24 February.
According to a press release sent to Agerpres on Monday, the Senate was represented to this meeting by Member of Romania's Parliament Delegation and President of the Senate's Agriculture Committee Doina Silistru. In the opening session, President of the National Council of Austria Doris Bures and OSCE PA President Christine Muttonen (Austria) referred to the initiatives and measures taken in order to promote the OSCE commitments and values in managing the numerous challenges which the member states are confronted with.
Moreover, the OSCE PA Special Representative on Gender Issues Hedy Fry (Canada) spoke, in her intervention, about the migration and refugee crisis from the perspective of equality of chances between men and women. "The three General Committees of the OSCE-PA organized debates, such as: transnational security in the OSCE region: fighting terrorism - the General Committee on Political Affairs and Security; managing natural resources, addressing water supply security and fighting climate changes - the General Committee on Economic Affairs, Science, Technology and Environment; protecting human rights amid growing populism - the General Committee on Democracy, Human Rights and Humanitarian Questions," the press release points out.
According to the quoted source, the head of Romania's Permanent Mission with the International Organization in Vienna, namely Ambassador Cristian Istrate, delivered a speech to the General Committee on Political Affairs and Security meeting, as Chair of the Forum for Security Co-operation and Permanent Representative of Romania to the OSCE. In the last day of the meeting, within the closing joint session of the three general committees, Chairperson-in-Office of the OSCE and Foreign Affairs Minister of Austria Sebastian Kurz, as well as Secretary General of the OSCE Lamberto Zannier spoke in favor of strengthening the cooperation between the governmental and parliamentary dimension of the OSCE. "The meeting ended with a special debate in respect to protecting human rights in times of crisis," the quoted source mentions.
