We will begin. This is the 32nd meeting of the Standing Committee on International Trade.
Today we're pleased to welcome to our committee a parliamentary group for cooperation with Canada from the Republic of Macedonia.
We are going to have consecutive translation today; we weren't able to set up simultaneous translation.
I'd like to begin by introducing our guests. We will proceed, I would hope, with an opening comment from His Excellency, and then a general discussion of the committee.
First of all, we welcome Trajko Veljanoski, who is the President of the Assembly of the Republic of Macedonia.
He is accompanied by three members of the assembly: Mr. Andrej Petrov, Aleksandar Nikoloski, and Safet Neziri.
Helping us as well we have Svetlana Angjelovska, who is going to translate from Macedonian to English for us.
I am delighted that you are here. We will be interested in your comments. I understand you're visiting for about a week in Canada, mostly in this part of the world. Unfortunately, you were unable to attend in Calgary, but perhaps you will on a future visit.
This committee is comprised of members of all the parties in our Parliament. Our premier function, of course, is free trade agreements and the discussion of free trade, international trade with other countries around the world.
Currently on our agenda is a possible trade agreement with the European Union. Obviously we'll be interested in your comments on that just before we depart for a visit to Europe.
Our committee would very much like to hear from you. So at this point I would like to turn it over to His Excellency Trajko Veljanoski to give us an idea of the purpose of your visit and perhaps a little background on the current state of the union in Macedonia.