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The European Union thanks the Slovenian Chairmanship, the Office of the Co-ordinator of Economic and Environmental Activities, the OSCE Centre in Almaty and the host country Kazakhstan for organising a successful second Preparatory Seminar of this year’s Economic Forum in Almaty on “Migration from an economic, environmental and security perspective�? on 24 and 25 January 2005.
Both the fact that the Seminar was attended by a large number of experts on migration issues and the introduction of panel discussions and regional working sessions contributed to the high quality of the discussions and to a lively exchange of ideas among the 200 participants to the seminar.
The second Seminar produced an ambitious list of suggestions for the OSCE and its participating States to consider. These suggestions need to be prioritised before follow up activities can be agreed. Preference should be given to areas where the OSCE can add value to the activities of other organisations and institutions. The EU therefore sees the most potential in the following thematic areas as contained in the consolidated summary prepared by the Office of the Co-ordinator: “legislation and policy making�?, “information and awareness raising�?, “informal sectors/economy�? and “OSCE as a platform�?.
The EU looks forward to the third Preparatory Seminar in Kiev on 10 and 11 March 2005 on the topic of “Integrating Persons belonging to National Minorities: Economic and Other Perspectives�?. After the third Preparatory Seminar and in preparation of the Prague Economic Forum, the EU will contribute to an in-depth discussion, to be held in the Economic and Environmental Sub-Committee, of the suggestions coming out of all three Preparatory Seminars.
The Candidate Countries Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Croatia1 align themselves with this statement.
1Croatia continues to be part of the Stabilisation and Association Process.
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