Joint statement by Valentina Matvienko and Jean-Claude Mignon

At the Conference, President of the IPA CIS Council Valentina Matvienko and President of the PA CE Jean-Claude Mignon issued a joint statement as follows:

On the occasion of the 15^th anniversary of the Agreement on Cooperation between the PA CE and the IPA CIS we want to express our satisfaction with the state of the positive and dynamic cooperation between our two assemblies.

Over this span of time, we have convened a good number of join events, among them high-level meetings between the leaders of the two assemblies, international parliamentary conferences, joint sittings of matching committees and other international events. Of special significance are joint sittings of the PACE Subcommittee on External Affairs IPA CIS PC on Political Issues and International Cooperation. These joint events have a potential in terms of growing cooperation and exchanges between the parliamentarians of the Council of Europe and the CIS.


We support convening of joint conferences as this on as a matter of regular practice. They are periodically convened to address various subject matters, such as European parliamentarianism, a dialogue across cultures and faiths, migration, security and the environment. As a tradition, the Conferences are witnessed by Heads of parliamentary assemblies and Speakers of parliaments, political activists and analysts.

IPA CIS and PA CE are also engaged in other conference events, plenary sessions and workshops organized by either of the parties. Secretariats of the assemblies maintain permanent contacts. We welcome and support this taking place.

We note with satisfaction that regular consultations on election observation Mission Leaders have become a regular feature of relations between the IPA CIS and PACE offering a format for exchanges on a given electoral campaign.

Joint effort of the IPA CIS and the PACE is a good precedent of parliamentary diplomacy whereby member nations of both organizations discuss issues of mutual concern. This opens possibilities to lay out a common legal background across the Euro-Asian continent centered around fundamental values and standards of democracy, human rights and the supremacy of law.