Heads of the IPA CIS parliamentary delegations took part in the IPA CIS Council meeting

Valentina Matvienko, Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council, Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, opened the meeting of the Council of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly.

The participants of the meeting approved the agenda of the 45th plenary session of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly and re-elected Valentina Matvienko as Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council.

At the meeting the Chairperson of the IPA CIS Council told the participants about the upcoming 137th Assembly of the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU), which would be held in St. Petersburg in October 2017. Valentina Matvienko invited the parliamentarians of the Commonwealth to take an active part in the preparation of this event. She also recalled that the IPU was the oldest and one of the most credible international parliamentary organizations in the world with a membership of 170 countries and 11 interparliamentary organizations.

Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee Sergey Lebedev informed the participants of the meeting about the decisions of the CIS Council of Heads of State adopted on 16 September 2016 and the decision of the CIS Council of Heads of Government of 28 October 2016.

Speaker of the Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrghyz Republic Chynybai Tursunbekov spoke on the chairmanship of the Kyrgyz Republic in the Commonwealth of Independent States.

Secretary General of the IPA CIS Council Alexey Sergeev briefed the colleagues on the preparation of events dedicated to the 25th anniversary of the CIS Interparliamentary Assembly.

A large portion of the agenda items was dedicated to the election monitoring in the Member States of the Commonwealth.

Hermine Naghdalyan, Vice Speaker of the National Assembly of the Republic of Armenia and the coordinator of the IPA CIS Observer Team, informed the IPA CIS Council members about the participation of the IPA CIS international observers in the monitoring of the referendum to amend the Constitution of the Republic of Tajikistan. Vladimir Bozhko, Deputy Speaker of the Majilis of the Parliament of the Republic of Kazakhstan, spoke on the work of the IPA CIS international observers he had led in Belarus during the elections to the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of the sixth convocation.

Another coordinator, Almazbek Baatyrbekov, Speaker of the Committee of the Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic on International Affairs, Defense and Security, informed his colleagues about the participation of the IPA CIS international observers in the monitoring of the elections to the State Duma of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation of the seventh convocation. Ilyas Umakhanov, Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation and Head of the IPA CIS Observer Mission shared information on the monitoring of the referendum to amend the Constitution of the Azerbaijan Republic. Akramsho Falaleev, Deputy Speaker of the Majlisi Namoyandagon Majlisi Oli of the Republic of Tajikistan and coordinator of the IPA CIS International Observer Team at the elections of President of the Republic of Moldova, told the Council about the this recent experience.

Dmitry Gladey, Director of the International Institute for Monitoring Democratic Development, Parliamentarism and Suffrage Protection of Citizens of IPA CIS Member Nations (IIMDD IPA CIS), spoke on the preparations for the observation of the referendum on the draft Law of the Kyrgyz Republic “On amendments to the Constitution of the Kyrgyz Republic” and on the set-up for the observation of electoral campaigns in the CIS States in 2017.

Chynybai Tursunbekov, Speaker of the Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrghyz Republic, and Alexey Sergeev, Secretary General of the IPA CIS Council, reported on the Fourth CIS International Cultural and Educational Forum Children of the Commonwealth, and Yury Vorobyov, Deputy Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation, presented the results of the Sixth International Congress Road Safety for the Safety of Life. Sergey Rybakov, Chairman of the IPA CIS Permanent Commission on Culture, Information, Tourism and Sport, Deputy Chairman of Committee of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation on Sscience, Education and Culture, told his colleagues about the awarding with the prize of the IPA CIS Chingiz Aitmatov Prize in 2016, and Maksat Sabirov, Chairman of the IPA CIS Budget Oversight Commission, member of the Committee of the Jogorku Kenesh of the Kyrgyz Republic on International Affairs, Defense and Security, reported on the financing of the IPA CIS activities.

Also, the members of the IPA CIS Council heard information on other important issues such as the IPA CIS representation at the CIS Council of Heads of Migration Authorities, the approval ofchairpersons of the IPA CIS permanent commissions, the IPA CIS work plan for 2017, etc.