COPENHAGEN, 29 September 2010 – Over 200 OSCE Parliamentarians from 50 OSCE countries are expected to participate in the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly’s Ninth Fall Meetings taking place Palermo, Sicily, from 8-11 October 2010. The previous Fall Meetings were held in Athens, Greece.

Hosted by the Sicilian Regional Assembly, the Fall Meetings include meetings of the Assembly’s Mediterranean Forum and Standing Committee and a Conference on “The Fight against Transnational Organized Crime and Corruption.”

Featured speakers will include OSCE PA President Petros Efthymiou (Greece), OSCE PA Vice President and head of the Italian delegation to the Parliamentary Assembly, Riccardo Migliori, as well as Kanat Saudabayev, Kazakhstan’s Minister of Foreign Affairs and OSCE Chairperson-in-Office, and OSCE Secretary General, Marc Perrin de Brichambaut.

The main speakers from Italy are Francesco Cascio, President of the Sicilian Regional Assembly, and the Presidents of the Italian Chamber of Deputies and Senate, Gianfranco Fini and Renato Schifani, as well as several Cabinet ministers.

All sessions will take place at the Sicilian Regional Assembly at Palazzo dei Normanni in Palermo and are open to the media. 

Delegates from the parliaments in Israel, Algeria and Morocco are also expected to participate, primarily in the sessions of the Mediterranean Forum, which will deal with economic and infrastructure cooperation in the Mediterranean basin, and cultural and environmental cooperation as an expression of the Mediterranean civilization.

The conference on organized crime and corruption will contain discussions on human trafficking, a look at the ten years since the adoption of the Palermo convention, and the fight against corruption. Participants include representatives of the National Anti-Mafia Bureau, the UN Office on Drugs and Crime, Transparency International, and Interpol.