NEW PARLIAMENTARIANS IN HIGH-LEVEL BRIEFINGS AT NATO AND SHAPE

From 8 to 12 July some 50 parliamentarians from NATO and partner countries including Afghanistan and Pakistan will meet the AllianceÂ’s top civilian and military leaders to get the latest inside views and information on NATOÂ’s operations, roles and challenges.

The intensive series of meetings is the AssemblyÂ’s eighth New Parliamentarians Programme, aimed at legislators who are new to parliament or who have recently become involved in their parliamentÂ’s Committees or delegations which deal with international relations and security.

The Programme is open to legislators from member countries as well as PfP countries and nations in the Middle East and North Africa (MENA), but this is the first time that the programme has been opened to legislators from Afghanistan and Pakistan. In welcoming their involvement, Assembly President JosÃ© Lello (Portugal) said, Â“The New Parliamentarians Programme is one of the AssemblyÂ’s success stories. It provides participants with excellent, up-to-date information about NATO which helps them perform their tasks as parliamentarians. Parliamentarians approve defence budgets and authorize the use of their armed forces in operations. They are also key participants in their own national debates on foreign affairs and international security. This Programme ensures that they are well-informed about NATO and Â– equally importantly Â– it allows legislators to express their own concerns and perspectives directly to the most senior NATO officialsÂ”.

Participants will meet NATO's Secretary General, Jaap de Hoop Scheffer, and the Supreme Allied Commander, General John Craddock, as well as several NATO Ambassadors, Assistant Secretaries General, and other top officials.

Legislators from 17 parliaments are participating. These are: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovenia, Spain, Russia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Moldova, Serbia, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia*, the Assembly of Kosovo, Jordan, Afghanistan, and Pakistan.

For further information, please contact

e-mail: Press@nato-pa.int

NATO Parliamentary Assembly

Place du Petit Sablon 3, 1000 Brussels, Belgium

TÃ©l: (32) 2 513 28 65 | Fax: (32) 2 514 18 47 |

website: http:// www.nato-pa.int |

Background

The NATO Parliamentary Assembly, founded in 1955 with a Brussels-based secretariat,

brings together 248 national parliamentarians from the 26 NATO countries.

In addition, 16 associate delegations from Central and Eastern Europe, Ukraine and Russia;

5 Mediterranean Associate delegations: Morocco, Algeria, Jordan, Mauritania and Israel

and 6 Parliamentary Observer delegations participate in Assembly activities and meetings.

* Turkey recognises the Republic of Macedonia with its constitutional name.