Within the presidency of the Republic of Macedonia over the Cooperation Process in Southeast Europe – SEECP, Eighth Meeting of the Working Group of the Parliamentary Dimension of this Initiative was held in Skopje today, and it was marked by discussion on the structure of future Secretariat and the level of financial contribution of national parliaments of member states.

Two documents prepared by the members of the Working Group from Bulgarian and Turkish parliament, related to the type, size and seat of the Secretariat as well as election of experts and management staff,  were presented at the Meeting. Bearing on mind that proposals are based on two different models of development of the SEECP Parliament Dimension – establishment of parliamentary assembly and founding of parliamentary conference. Working Group entrusted the Parliament of Macedonia with the task to consolidate presented proposals and provide additional information, which would facilitate reaching the final decision. Even though the agreement on importance of parliamentary cooperation was reached at the Meeting, particularly through initiatives such as the Cooperation Process, it was pointed out that in time of economic and financial crisis, it was necessary to access to rationally organized Secretariat, which did not require significant financial resources.

Apart from the representatives of the Parliament of Montenegro, the Meeting was attended by the representatives of parliaments of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Greece, Turkey, Croatia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and the host, Macedonia.

After a special form of parliamentary cooperation, within 14 years of the SEECP Initiative, the new phase of development of Parliamentary dimension started, with the establishment of the new Working Group during Montenegrin presidency in 2011. Working Group SEECP PD was founded with the goal of consideration of parliamentary cooperation modality through establishing parliamentary assembly or strengthening current models of communication of parliaments of the region.