Skopje, 21 October 2021 (MIA) - Greek Parliament Speaker Konstantinos Tasoulas, PACE President Rik Daems, and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe Marija Pejčinović Burić opened on Thursday in Athens the two-day European Conference of Presidents of Parliament and expressed satisfaction that participants, which include North Macedonia’s Parliament Speaker Talat Xhaferi, are attending the event in person. In their opening remarks, they stressed the importance of the issues and proposals set to be brought to governments regarding activities aimed at overcoming current challenges, Parliament said in a press release. In regard to sharing experiences about the challenges the COVID-19 pandemic brought on democracies and resolving similar crises in the future, they underlined the importance of Parliaments as pillars of democracy in times of crisis and commended the fact that most of them managed to carry out the necessary adjustments of rules and procedures to ensure constitutional roles are performed uninterrupted during the pandemic. Regarding the role of Parliaments and the right to healthy and sustainable environment, conference participants were asked to pledge the adoption of measures set to ensure the right to safe, clean, healthy and sustainable environment via an additional protocol to the European Convention on Human Rights, legally-binding for all member states. “Explicit recognition of the right to healthy and sustainable environment in Europe and the rest of the world will pave the way for decisive action at European and national level,” read the press release, citing highlights from the conference’s opening. According to the agenda, Parliament Speaker Xhaferi will address the second day of the conference and hold at the sidelines of the event meetings with the President of the Hellenic Parliament Konstantinos Tasoulas and Swedish Parliament Deputy Speaker Lotta Johnsson Fornarve.