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12.07.2016

Plans to unburden agendas of CIS meetings unveiled

MINSK (BelTA) – Plans have been made to unburden the agendas of sessions of supreme bodies of the Commonwealth of Independent States, BelTA learned from Sergei Lebedev, Chairman of the CIS Executive Committee, CIS Executive Secretary, on 12 July.

The draft resolution of the CIS Heads of State Council on adapting the Commonwealth of Independent States to the modern reality is under consideration now. Sergei Lebedev mentioned several things that will be included into the document. “We intend to lessen the workload on agendas of meetings of heads of state and heads of government,” said the official. He pointed out that the agendas of such meetings tend to include a lot of items. “This is why the heads of government, heads of state have agreed to decrease the number of items on these agendas and to push the less significant ones to a lower level, to the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, the CIS Economic Council and maybe even the Council of plenipotentiary representatives,” explained Sergei Lebedev.

The official added that the CIS intends to optimize financial spending, take measures to improve the effectiveness of forums and meetings. Apart from that, proposals have been submitted in favor of optimizing personnel numbers of the CIS Executive Committee itself. According to Sergei Lebedev, some staff reductions have already been enacted. “But we hope that these reductions will not be essential and will contribute to better performance of our bodies,” stressed Sergei Lebedev. The intended staff layoffs are now being approved at the level of the heads of state.

The draft resolution of the CIS Heads of State Council on adapting the Commonwealth of Independent States to the modern reality was discussed at the regular session of the Council of plenipotentiary representatives in the CIS charter bodies and other ones in Minsk on 12 July. Participants of the session were also supposed to form the draft agendas of the sessions of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs and the CIS Heads of State Council that will take place in Bishkek in September. The plenipotentiary representatives were also supposed to discuss proposals to the draft agenda of the session of the CIS Heads of Government Council, which is scheduled to take place in Minsk on 28 October.