site.bta Bulgarian Parliament Chair Attends Euro-Mediterranean Summit

Bulgarian Parliament Chair Attends Euro-Mediterranean Summit

Lisbon/Sofia, May 11 (BTA) - Bulgarian National Assembly Chair
Tsetska Tsacheva attended the Second Summit of Speakers of the
Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean
(PA-UfM) which took place in Lisbon on Monday, the National
Assembly said in a press release. The main topic of the summit
was immigration, asylum and human rights in the
Euro-Mediterranean region.

PA-UfM's 11th parliamentary session is being held between Monday
 and Tuesday, also in Lisbon. At the session Bulgaria is
represented by MPs Stanislav Anastassov, Svetlana Angelova and
Atanas Merdjanov.

Tsacheva told the summit that in order to handle the increased
flow of migrants to the EU, it is necessary to apply effectively
 the principle of solidarity. At Tsacheva's proposal, this
statement was included in the final declaration of the summit.

The Bulgarian parliament leader also told the meeting that
Europe needs to adopt appropriate measures and instruments to
cope with mass migration flows. Special support should be
provided to those EU member states which have to deal with
particularly large flows of migrants by sea and by land.

The summit considered the adoption of a common European policy
for legal migration, which involves the creation of new channels
 of legal migration.

PA-UfM speakers discussed simplifying the rules for migrant
family reunions, establishing more flexible procedures for
issuing work visas and raising public awareness of the
opportunities for awarding scholarships to migrant students,
researchers and teachers.

The Portuguese Parliament took over the PA-UfM presidency on
February 9. Migration policy is the main highlight on the agenda
 of the Portuguese presidency of the organization.