30 – 31 January 2023, Doha, Qatar – The Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean (PAM) attended the Third Counter-Terrorism Coordination Meeting of Parliamentary Assemblies and Parliamentary Policy Dialogue on Border Security, co-organized by the United Nations Office of Counter-Terrorism (UNOCT) and the OSCE Parliamentary Assembly (OSCE PA), in cooperation with the Shura Council of Qatar.

The PAM delegation was composed by the President, Hon. Pedro Roque (Portugal), President Emeritus and Chair of PAM’s Special Committee on Counterterrorism, Hon. Gennaro Migliore (Italy), and the President of the PAM Women Parliamentary Forum, Hon. Joana Lima (Portugal).

The Third Coordination Meeting aimed to facilitate a joint review of existing counterterrorism trends and efforts, building up on the outcomes and recommendations agreed on the Second Coordination Meeting, hosted and co-organized by PAM in Naples, Italy, last June.

In his intervention, PAM President highlighted the key security developments in the Euro-Mediterranean and Gulf regions, which the Assembly is following closely. Namely, the deterioration of the security conditions and the ongoing cycle of violence in the Sahel, aggravated by the presence of Russian mercenary forces; the condition of ISIL Foreign Terrorist Fighters and their families in detention camps in Syria; the actions of Taliban in Afghanistan; the security challenges posed by Iran; and the nexus between terrorism and transnational organized crime.

In addition, a session was dedicated to Gender mainstreaming in Counter-Terrorism and prevention of Violent Extremism.

On the second day, participants focused their discussions on the topic of the Parliamentary Policy Dialogue “Border Security and Cross Border Co-operation in the Context of Counter-Terrorism”.

H.E. Makis Voridis, Minister of Interior of Greece, who was awarded with the PAM prize in 2021 for the efforts of Greece in preventing and combating domestic violence during the COVID pandemic, opened the meeting.

Following fruitful discussions, participants agreed that States can do better in ensuring that their borders remain wide open to citizens and commerce, but firmly closed to criminals and terrorists, for instance, through the harmonization of laws and coherent policies, the promotion of committed authorities, the enforcement of sanctions against brutal regimes sponsoring terrorism or trampling Rule of Law, and the allocation of adequate resources, thus ensuring that terrorists do not exploit any loopholes.

With various international parliamentary assemblies represented, including the Inter-Parliamentary Union, Arab Parliament, African Parliamentary Union, Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe, Latin American and Caribbean Parliament, and Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, the event in Doha represented an excellent opportunity to review relevant activities on counterterrorism, align future plans and consider a number of future joint initiatives.//