Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy

The Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (, ), or I.A.O., is a transnational, inter-parliamentary institution that in 1994 was originally established as the European Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (EIAO).

Based in Athens, Greece, the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy constitutes a permanent communication structure between parliamentarians of member states aiming at unity in diversity of Orthodox Christians on the principles and values of Christianity and democracy.

History

Inspired by a conference held from 30 June to 4 July 1993 in Chalkidiki on the topic of "Orthodoxy in the New European Reality", the European Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy was formed by the initiative of the Hellenic Parliament. Following the 1993 Manifesto of the Participants, the official Founding Act was passed by the participants of the Founding Synod held in November 1994 in Athens. In 2001, groups of parliamentarians from Australia, Asia, Africa and the United States participated in the General Assembly, the organization was then renamed Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy (I.A.O.).

During the June 2004 General Assembly in Kyiv, Ukraine, it was decided to seek cooperation with the Parliamentary Union of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (P.U.I.C.). A co-operation agreement was drafted at a meeting of the two organizations on 22 March 2005, in Athens. On 19 May 2010, a cooperation agreement with the Pan-African Parliament was signed by PUIC's President Idriss Ndele Moussa and I.A.O.'s Secretary-General Anastasios Nerantzis

Massive protests broke out during the 2019 General Assembly in Tbilisi, Georgia, after the chairman of the assembly, a Russian communist named Sergei Gavrilov, made a number of public statements that were viewed by the Georgian public as denigrating Georgian sovereignty.

The delegation from Russia, as well as the delegations from Belarus and Syria, were unable to attend the 2023 General Assembly due to EU sanctions. The election of a Polish president ended the three decade long Russian control of the presidency.

Institutional bodies General Assembly The supreme organ of the I.A.O. is the General Assembly, consisting of delegations from all member parliaments. The General Assembly convenes once annually during the month of June.

General Assembly timeline No.CountryCityYearMain subject1GreeceOlympia1993Orthodoxy in the new European Reality2GreeceAthens1994European Countries and their mission in the new European reality3Russia Moscow1995The Cultural and Enlightenment Tradition of Orthodoxy4BulgariaSofia1996The Social Dimension of Orthodoxy5GreeceChalkidiki1997Orthodoxy in the context of the European civilization- history and future6PolandWarsaw1998The problems of the novel heresies (sects) in the E.I.A.O. countries and effective ways of dealing with them7RussiaMoscow1999Ways of legal protection of the traditional family as a diachronic value of society8IsraelJerusalem2000The Son of Man in the year 2000 AD9GreecePatmos2001The contribution of Orthodoxy in the enlarged European Union10RomaniaBucharest2002Globalisation and Orthodoxy11LithuaniaVilnius2003Globalization and Orthodoxy12UkraineKyiv2004Security with freedom13SwitzerlandGeneva2005Christianism before the challenges of the modern era14ItalyVenice2006The contribution of the Orthodox culture to the construction of the New Europe15KazakhstanAstana2007The Inter-religious dialogue as a factor of peaceful and fair relationships among peoples16GreeceRhodes2008The crisis of the global value system as a challenge before Christian Orthodoxy17SerbiaBelgrade2009The Global Economic Crisis and its impact on Social – Spiritual – Cultural European tradition18ArmeniaYerevan2010The contribution of Orthodoxy in the dynamics and development of statehood of the countries of Eastern Christian tradition19FranceParis2011Religious values in the Economic crisis reality20Czech RepublicPrague2012Challenges for democracy during periods of global economic crisis21GreeceAthens2013Parliamentary Democracy – Christianity – Orthodoxy: values and concepts22RussiaMoscow2014Orthodoxy: values and concepts23AustriaVienna2015Orthodox Historic Communities in Europe and around the world24GreeceThessaloniki2016Fundamental global changes – Christian Orthodox perspective25ItalyRome2017The Christian understanding of global crisis and ways to overcome it26GreeceAthens201825 years of the Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy 27GeorgiaTbilisi2019The contribution of Parliamentarism in understanding modern Political – Social Phenomena28Virtual meeting due to the COVID-19 pandemic2020Elections of the I.A.O organs and the agenda of the future I.A.O. activities. 85 Members of Parliaments, official representatives of Parliaments, parliamentary groups and individual Parliamentary representatives participated in the General Assembly.29GreeceCrete2021The World's Future and the Future of Europe after the pandemic30GreeceChalkidiki202330 years of I.A.O.: Facing new challenges. Before new perspectives31ItalyPalermo2024Evaluation of the conclusions of the International Political Conference on Christian Values32RomaniaBucharest2025The cooperation of parliamentary and religious institutions in shaping the guidelines for the use of artificial intelligence: the significance of IPU’s Marrakesh Communiqué33FinlandHelsinki2026The Situation of Christian Minorities in Times of Crisis: Relations Between Society, the State, and the Church – Difficulties and Challenges

Presidents of the General Assembly The President of the General Assembly is elected for a two-year tenure by the plenary session of the Assembly. 2023–present: Eugeniusz Czykwin

International Secretariat The International Secretariat appoints eight standing committees. It is headed by the Secretary-General, the Alternate Secretary and the Treasurer, and consists of an additional six members from various countries. As of 2020, the leadership consists of:

Secretary-General: Maximos Charakopoulos Alternate Secretary: Andreas Michailidis Treasurer: Stavros Kalafatis

International Secretariat representatives: Alexandr Cotric Theodore Ssekikubo Eugeniusz Czykwin Dmitry Sablin Angelos Votsis Hany Naguib

Committees of the International Secretariat As of 2020, the following committees are led by: Committee on Human Rights: Vangjel Dule Committee on Mass Media: Milen Mihov Committee on Social Activity, Family and Motherhood:Elie Ferzli Committee on Education: Alen Simonyan Cooperation Committee with the Pan-African Parliament: Athanasios Davakis Cooperation Committee with the Parliamentary Assembly of the Russian – Belarus Union: Gennadiy Davydko Cooperation Committee with the Parliamentary Union of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation member-states: Joseph Iskander Cooperation Working Group with the International Catholic Legislators Network: Lefteris Christoforou

Member countries The Assembly currently consists of parliamentary committees of 21 countries, mostly from Eastern Europe, including:

Additionally, delegations from Africa, Asia, Australia, the European Union, and the United States have been participating in the Assembly.

Cooperation agreements The I.A.O. has signed several cooperation agreements with various international organizations, including: Parliamentary Union of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation, since March 2005 Parliamentary Assembly of the Union State, since November 2011 Pan-African Parliament, since May 2011 Interparliamentary Assembly of the Eurasian Economic Union, since November 2011 Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC), observer status mutually granted Inter-Parliamentary Union, observer status mutually granted Parliamentary Assembly of the Mediterranean, Memorandum of Understanding since February 2019

The I.A.O has also participated in United Nations General Assembly conferences, has signed cooperation treaties with the parliaments of Egypt, Iran and Lebanon, as well as explored future cooperation with the Baltic Assembly, the European Parliament and the International Catholic Legislators Network: ICLN.

Interparliamentary Assembly on Orthodoxy

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