At the margins of the Meeting of the Conference of Parliamentary Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of the European Union, within the Latvian presidency of the European Union, the Third meeting of Committees for Union Affairs of Parliaments of southern part of the EU was held, gathering representatives of Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Italy, Portugal, Romania, Slovenia and Spain. At the said meeting Montenegro participates as a candidate country, and Chairperson of the Committee on European Integration Mr Slaven Radunović and Deputy Chairperson Ms Maja Ćatović are attending the meeting on behalf of the Parliament of Montenegro.  

The meeting, chaired by Mr Jose Lopez Garrido, Chairperson of the Joint Committee for EU Affairs in the Spanish Parliament, was focused on migration issues within the Union and challenges it carries itself, then economy management regarding the increase of economic growth and improving the policy of employment, and challenges that the member states are facing in the security field.

The meeting emphasises that the European Fund for Strategic Investments has a significant role in encouraging investments and opening new jobs, and welcomes the decision of the Council from December 2014, regarding new actions of the EU in the field of economic management. In addition, the Meeting stresses that the member states should, by using current mechanisms for fighting terrorism, according to the principle of solidarity and sharing and responsibilities, provide security to the citizens, and in that manner also safe and integrated Europe. Participants of the meeting agree that free speech should be respected, since there is no democracy without it. When it comes to migration policies, the policy should be developed in the direction of new possibilities in terms of education, economic development and encouraging of the competition. The reason for that lies in the need for opening borders, which is the essence of integration, and which should be perceived like an advantage and not the issue which will bring new challenges to the European Union.

The meeting resulted in Final Declaration, whose adoption is expected tomorrow at the meeting of the COSAC.

The said meeting is organised in accordance with the previous practice of considering issues of joint interest of the member states of the southern part of the EU, and the first one was held within the Cyprus presidency of the Council of Europe, in January 2014.