At midnight on New Year's Day the Georgian Parliament assumed the presidency of the South Caucasus Parliamentary Initiative (SCPI). SCPI is an ongoing process for dialogue, exchange of views and joint analysis established by the Parliament's of Armenia, Azerbaijan and Georgia in a memorandum signed on 13 May 2003. Work on the initiative was launched by LINKS in March 2001 and several meetings were held in Britain, the Caucasus and other parts of Europe. The first plenary assembly of SCPI was held in Scotland on 16-20 December 2003. At the end of this meeting LINKS passed on the Chairmanship of the Initiative to the Georgian Parliament. The head of the Georgian Delegation to SCPI, Deputy Speaker of parliament Mr Vakhtang Kolbaia will chair SCPI until 30th June 2004 when he will hand over the presidency to the Armenian Parliament. The Parliament of Azerbaijan will assume the Presidency on 1st January 2005.
