Address by Mr. Averof Neofytou, Chairman of the Standing Committee on Foreign and European Affairs of the House of Representatives of the Republic of Cyprus.
Thursday, 3 March 2016
Mr. President of the House of Representatives,
Honourable Colleagues from the Parliaments of Greece and Israel,
Dear Ambassadors,
Ladies and gentlemen,
Thank you, Mr. President, for your good words and your support to this initiative. It is with particular pleasure that I welcome you all, in my turn, to Cyprus and the House of Representatives of our country. Dear Colleagues from Greece and Israel, your acceptance of my invitation to participate in this first Trilateral Parliamentary Meeting of Committees in charge of Foreign Affairs in the Parliaments of Cyprus, Greece and Israel is a true honour for me and the Committee I chair. I thank you wholeheartedly also on behalf of my Colleagues, who are here today, participating in our deliberations.
The establishment of this new form of trilateral parliamentary cooperation constitutes a positive step in the direction of securing stability in our turbulent region and will, as I very much hope, prove beneficial not only to the people we represent, but also for the wider area. I am confident it will be proof of how much can be achieved when work is carried out jointly towards common goals.
It is for this reason that, in parallel with the closer ties forged at the highest level of our three States, encouraging parliamentary cooperation in this same respect is not only our wish and will, but also our duty. Extending the growing relations established between our countries to the parliamentary level can give additional impetus to the work already carried out in the sectors where cooperation is already established and beyond. Our shared view, with my counterparts in the Parliaments of Greece and Israel, is that the importance and added value of this cooperation is both related to the fact that our Parliaments will be called to translate decisions taken at Government level into legislation, as well as –and this is a commonly accepted fact- that parliamentary diplomacy can work in domains where Governments do not or cannot sometimes reach.
We have chosen to focus in our inaugural meeting on discussing matters mostly pertaining to the practical aspects of our new form of trilateral cooperation. This is because we believe that a firm basis should be set to these meetings in order to ensure the sustainability and efficiency of our endeavour. The long list of possible matters to be discussed in the course of our future meetings, including security and its various aspects, migration, peace, the economy, energy, trade and tourism, inter-parliamentary cooperation per se and the protection of the environment, to name but a few, is proof of the potential of this Trilateral Parliamentary Cooperation.
In addition to the proceedings of the Trilateral Meeting, which will be concluded by the adoption of a Joint Declaration, reflecting our will to work closer together, we will have the honour to be received by the President of the Republic, as well as by the President of the House of Representatives. We will furthermore have the opportunity to share more views of mutual interest in the course of our lunch and dinner. I am certain that our fruitful discussions will allow in particular the three Chairmen of the Committees participating in this Meeting to share many interesting aspects of our work with the Press, during this afternoon’s Press Conference.
I am looking forward to a very productive first meeting in a while and ask you for now to proceed to the front of the building for a Group photo. May I ask the President of the House also to honour us with his presence in this photo.
Thank you all.
