Belarus interested in OSCE recommendations on parliamentarism improvement, Vadim Popov says
Belarus is interested in the OSCE recommendations on the improvement of the parliamentary system, Vadim Popov, the Chairman of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly, said at a meeting with Hans Jochen Schmidt, the head of the OSCE Office in Minsk, in the House of Government on March 18.
The Belarusian politician congratulated Mr. Hans Jochen Schmidt on taking over the post of the chief of the OSCE Office in Minsk and expressed confidence that “it would promote further development of the mutual contacts for the benefit of the whole Europe”.
“European countries sometimes slam the Belarusian parliament do not taking into account the simple truth. For example, the parliament of Hungary is 1100 years old, the Belarusian parliament is only 10. Therefore it is difficult and still impossible to be compared with the European parliamentarian institution and achieve the perfection of the parliamentarian work in some European countries for such a short period of time. We would like to hear more positive recommendations upon better organization of the work,” Vadim Popov said.
The Chairman of the House of Representatives noted that the parliament of Belarus has been cooperating with all international institutions and organizations. Among them are the Interparliamentary Union, the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, PACE. All in all, there are 12 large interparliamentary structures the National Assembly of Belarus cooperates with.
The Belarusian parliament has set up a permanent delegation on cooperation with the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly. The delegation is headed by Sergei Zabolotets, the Vice-Speaker of the House of Representatives. “The two sides establish contacts for the sake of OSCE and Belarus,” Vadim Popov said.
Mr. Hans Jochen Schmidt urged the Belarusian side to expand the bilateral contacts and develop closer links with the European countries. He also noted that the OSCE Office in Minsk will contribute to the implementation of joint projects.
