Brussels hosted roundtable on ?Road to Europe: preparation of Kazakhstan for the OSCE chairmanship in 2010?

BRUSSELS. February 14. KAZINFORM /Yerzhan Ospanov/ Kazakhstan Embassy in Belgium together with the Centre for European Policy and Institute for Strategic Studies organized a roundtable on ?The Road to Europe: preparation of Kazakhstan for the OSCE chairmanship in 2010? in Brussels this week, Kazinform reports.

Senior officials of the EU Council, European Commission, NATO, OSCE, Czech Ministry of Foreign Affairs, World Bank, Energy Charter, permanent representatives of the EU member countries in the European Council and employees of the European scientific-research centers and ?Shell?, ?British Petroleum? trans-national companies attended the event. Delivering a speech Director of the Institute for Strategic Studies Borut Grgic noted high level of preparation of Kazakhstan for the oncoming chairmanship in the OSCE and importance of this process for the whole continent. According to Special Representative of the EU for Central Asia Pierre Morel, Kazakhstan?s role as a future chairman of the OSCE is of great importance. ?Kazakhstan firmly pursues the chosen course which influences on the whole Central Asian region?, he said. P. Morel highlighted that Kazakhstan will face serious challenges during its chairmanship in the Organisation ? fighting against drug-traffic from Afghanistan, ensuring work of the Central Asian Regional Information Center, regulation of the problems of water resources in Central Asia and others. Vice Minister of Foreign Affairs of Kazakhstan, National Coordinator of RK for interaction with the EU Konstantin Zhigalov in his speech briefed on the priorities of Kazakhstan during the OSCE chairmanship and noted key directions of ? The Road to Europe? State Program. He also informed of the laws on elections, political parties and mass media adopted recently in Kazakhstan.