MOSCOW, 23 December (BelTA) – Belarus will host the next, 62nd session of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union State of Belarus and Russia. The decision was adopted at the 61st session of the Parliamentary Assembly in Moscow on 23 December, BelTA has learned.
"It has been proposed to hold the next session in the Republic of Belarus. The Council of the Parliamentary Assembly will set the date and the venue of the session, prepare a draft agenda based on the proposals to be submitted by the commissions," said Vyacheslav Volodin, Chairman of the Parliamentary Assembly, Speaker of the State Duma of Russia. He stressed that the main task of the Parliamentary Assembly is to provide legislative support for the decisions to advance the integration adopted by the Supreme State Council of the Union State on 4 November. "I hope next year will be more effective for the integration," said Viacheslav Volodin.
For his part, Valery Mitskevich, Deputy Chairman of the House of Representatives of the National Assembly of Belarus, emphasized: "We really have a lot of work to do to implement the decree, the decisions taken by the heads of our states. I am confident that we will work as smoothly and successfully as we did today."
On 23 December, the Union State MPs adopted the draft budget of the Union State for 2022, made changes to the budget of the Union State for the current year. The structure of the Parliamentary Assembly has been changed: the number of its standing commissions has been increased from 8 to 12. In addition, the Union State MPs approved the work plan of the Parliamentary Assembly and the plan of its international activities for 2022.
The first meeting of the session was held in Minsk on 2 December. Back then Vyacheslav Volodin was re-elected head of the Parliamentary Assembly, and the powers of the Russian deputation were confirmed. The PA also adopted a statement over the situation on the Belarusian-Polish border. The MPs called on the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly, the European Parliament and other EU structures to take concrete measures to resolve the crisis.
