ENoP attended THE CONVENING MEETING OF THE COMMUNITY OF DEMOCRACIES PARLIAMENTARY FORUM on 11-12 March
On the 11th -12th of March, in Vilnius, in correspondence with the commemoration of the historical moments of the 20th Anniversary of the Reestablishment of Lithuania, the declaration establishing the Community of Democracies Parliamentary Forum was signed by the 41 participants of the Convening meeting. The event gave space to the discussion about the Parliamentary Forum objectives, structure and activities, and was followed by informal discussions organized in parallel panels focusing on the projects of the Parliamentary Forum in Eastern Europe and on its global agenda.
In this occasion also two Resolutions of the Parliamentary Forum on the situation in Cuba and in Georgia were approved as well as the proposed text of the Resolution Commending the Community of Democracies for its achievements.
All this material will be published on the website of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania.
The Vilnius Declaration, which was adopted during the meeting, embeds the principle of parliamentary cooperation when strengthening the parliaments primarily in the transition and pre-transition countries, engaging in the experience and best practice sharing projects with the parliamentarians as well as pro-democracy activists from the Community of Democracies participating countries or countries where the Community of Democracies is engaged in democracy building activities.
Speaker of the Moldovan Parliament, Acting President of Moldova Mihai Ghimpu, Speaker of Georgian Parliament David Bakradze, Deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Olha Bodnar, who was born in Lithuania and graduated from school here, the first leader of independent Belarus Stanislau Shushkevich, leader of the United Civil Party of Belarus Anatoly Lebedko, current and former MPs from the United States of America, the Czech Republic, Poland, Ireland, Liechtenstein, Mexico, Bulgaria, Morocco, Turkey, Germany and Iceland took part in the meeting in Vilnius.
The Community of Democracies is an intergovernmental body, the goal of which is to globally strengthen and deepen democratic norms and practices. In July 2009, Lithuania started a two-year Presidency of the Community of Democracies, which joins together over 100 countries
