Cooperation fund

An International Symposium on “Combating illegal migration and illicit human trafficking” was held in Ivano Frankivs, Ukraine on 11-12 March 2016. It was the first activity out of twelve projects funded by the CEI Cooperation Fund - Extraordinary Call covering migration.

Public and private institutions registered in a CEI Member State as well as international and regional organisations are invited to apply to the CEI Cooperation Fund for innovative actions favouring mobility and networking. Proposals need to focus on capacity building by transferring and sharing know-how, in particular from EU CEI Member States to non-EU CEI Member States. The activities can take the form of conferences, seminars, workshops, and training activities.

The two-day international workshop and final conference held in Trieste on 17-19 March was organised by the ICS, Consorzio Italiano di Solidarietà – Ufficio Rifugiati, Onlus (Italian Consortium for Solidarity – Refugees Office NGO).

The Young Leaders’ Forum (YLF), held in Budapest on 8-10 March, featured outstanding young professionals, aged 25-35, soon-to-become important actors and decision-makers in the field of innovation, research, and development.

The KineDok conference on Alternative Distribution presented new trends in the field of alternative distribution and gave participants the chance to meet the representatives of European distribution platforms to discuss innovative ways of bringing documentary films closer to the audience.

SME representatives from Serbia, Montenegro, Croatia, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina gathered in Belgrade, Serbia, on 19 February 2016 to attend the conference “Small and medium-sized enterprises - regional networking and business improvement“.
 
The main objective of the Conference was to boost SME development in the CEI region through exchange of knowledge and good practices, networking and dialogue with public officials in support of a business-friendly environment.
 

About 170 scientists from worldwide gathered in Vienna, on 14-17 February for the 41st Conference of the Middle European Cooperation in Statistical Physics (MECO41).
 

The CEI and the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), in special partnership with the Media Program South East Europe of the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), have announced the winners of the “CEI SEEMO Award for Outstanding Merits in Investigative Journalism” 2015: Aleksan

The event, held at the premises of the Institute of Mathematics of the National Academy of Sciences of Belarus in Minsk on 14-18 September, gathered 127 participants from several CEI Member States (Belarus, Ukraine, Hungary, Poland, Romania), Cyprus, Great Britain, Georgia, Switzerland and Taiwan.
 
The Conference was organised by the Institute of Mathematics, NAS of Belarus and by the
Belarusian State University, and co-chaired by the Minister of Education of Belarus, Michail Zhuravkov, and Professor Vyacheslav Yanchevskii of the Institute of Mathematics, NAS.

The high-level workshop on infrastructure development on “Building on the Virtual WB Regional Centre for Hydrometeorological Services and Climate Change” took place in Skopje, Macedonia on 23 September 2015.

The CEUB University Residential Center of Bertinoro in Santa Sofia, Italy, hosted the 21st CEI International Summer School ”Managing Diversities in Democracy: Minorities, Territories, Self- Determination” on 1-13 September 2015.
 

The third Straniak Academy for Democracy and Human Rights held in Ulcinj, Montenegro on 6-19 September, gathered thirty-five students from the Western Balkans, Austria and other states. Professors and experts from Austria and the Western Balkans held lectures on democracy, the rule of law and human rights.

About 20 female organic producers from 9 CEI countries gathered for the first time during The Central European Women Farmers Gathering 2015 held on 29 August - 2 September in Pirot, Serbia. The gathering was hosted by the Amma – Center for the Care of People and Nature and co-financed by the CEI Cooperation Fund. The Global Federation of WWOOF Organisations and the Pirot Municipality participated as project partners.

Thirty one participants from 14 CEI countries gathered in Belgrade, Serbia on 19 July - 1 August 2015, for the 12th edition of the Two Open Weeks of PLAVO Theatre, the most attended edition so far.
 

The CEI is supporting the Serbian NGO “Radovi U Toku” in implementing the Mediation4Roma project, co-funded by the EU Lifelong Learning Programme.
 
The project aims at empowering the Roma community through a European Roma mediation framework. The implementation of a Vocational Education and Training (VET) certification for Roma Mediators is expected to recognise professions according to their features and needs.
 

Among the recommendations included in the Communiqué adopted by the CEI Ministers for Foreign Affairs at their meeting in Ohrid on 15 June 2015, are the need to contribute to global peace and security by establishing adequate measures for combating illegal migration and related crime, including radicalisation, violent extremism, terrorism and the foreign terrorist fighters phenomena.
 

The administrative and eligibility check of the applications for co-financing CEI Cooperation Activities - Call for Proposals 2015 - has been carried out.

Applications classified as eligible will proceed to the second evaluation phase and possible allocation of a CEI contribution. Applicants will receive a notification regarding the final decision on co-financing (awarding/rejection).

Applications classified as non eligible will not proceed to the second evaluation phase.

The Danube:Future White Paper was prepared in a bottom-up process involving around 50 researchers in the humanities and natural and social sciences, during the First Danube:Future Workshop in Klagenfurt, on 8-10 April. It deals with research and capacity building needs as well as with challenges and opportunities for the development of a sustainability-oriented knowledge society of the Danube River Basin.
 

The main international forum on molecular biology of small DNA tumour viruses, the 46th DNA Tumour Virus Meeting, took place in Trieste on 21-26 July.

The event, organised for the 16th year in a row by the Economic Policy Institute, gathered 34 young experts from public institutions, research centres and think-tanks from 9 CEI Member States (Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and Ukraine) and Turkey. The main goal of the Seminar is to build a training hub among the region’s future decision-makers in order for them to improve their professional skills and establish fruitful mutual cooperation for the years to come.