Speakers of CEE parliaments emphasize role of national parliaments in int'l policy

Participants at the summit of Speakers of Central and Eastern European (CEE) Parliaments agreed here on Thursday that national parliaments should engage in international policy.

At the summit, participants discussed regional security, infrastructure cooperation, and strengthening the role of national parliaments.

According to Marek Kuchcinski, Polish Sejm Speaker, the cooperation between CEE states would serve the whole EU, and the summit was an opportunity for "reflection and dialogue on...the role of Central and Eastern Europe in the international community, and cooperation between our sovereign states".

He also added that the role of parliaments in international politics was often underestimated, but they could play an important part "in stimulating interstate and social contacts in the region".

Both Croatian Speaker Zeljko Reiner and Serbian Deputy Speaker Djordje Milicevic agreed that national parliaments had a vital role in ensuring international peace and security and that they should engage more in these fields.

Milicevic stressed the necessity of maintaining solidarity when facing challenges such as migration, terrorism, and climate change, which concerned everyone.

According to Montenegro Parliamentary Speaker Ivan Brajovic, cooperation between national parliaments was especially vital, as they contributed to political stability. Referring to the migration crisis, he underlined the need to strongly cooperate with neighboring states.

Polish Sejm Deputy Speaker Ryszard Terlecki said that the role of politics, and international politics in particular, was to ensure peace and security and named threats to countries borders as one of the major regional security challenges. Endit