Speaker of the House of Representatives Anġlu Farrugia opened the 17th edition of the Conference of Presidents of Parliament of Small European States and welcomed Speakers and Presidents of Parliaments or their representatives from Andorra, Cyprus, Liechtenstein, Luxembourg, Monaco, Montenegro and San Marino. The conference will be taking place today and tomorrow.
The participants are discussing themes considered relevant to these small states. The three sessions will deal with the economic opportunity of climate change, the role of small states in the context of multilateralism, and migration.
Opening the conference, Speaker Farrugia spoke about the three themes selected by the Presidency and why these were deemed relevant to this year's conference, noting that parliaments are experiencing times through which cooperation and collaboration between countries are very much crucial.
He stressed that no country can live in a bubble, and this is even more true for small states. Following recent crises such as the Covid pandemic, countries across the world quickly realised that working on their own was not an option.