KEP

The press conference held on 31 August in Gradiška, Bosnia and Herzegovina, in the framework of the KEP AUSTRIA Project Development of the ICT business incubator in Gradiška reaffirmed the importance of promoting entrepreneurship and providing assistance to young entrepreneurs, newly established companies as well as to experienced firms.
 

The SUSAGRI project is designed and implemented by the Council for Agricultural Research and Economics (CREA, Italy), the Research Institute for Horticulture in Skierniewice (RIH, Poland) and the Faculty of Forestry at the University of Sarajevo (SUFASA), in collaboration with the Administration of Bosnia and Herzegovina for Plant Health Protection (PHPA), a central authority within the Ministry

The Italian Institute of Photonics and Nanotechnologies and the Faculty of Technology in Leskovac, Serbia, have joined forces in the implementation phase of the project PACKSENSOR - The impact of the controlled atmosphere on quality and safety of close-seal-packaged food applied in the SMEs of south Serbia.

During a two-day visit on 6-8 July 2015, directors and project engineers of the Albanian water management company, UKT met with the representatives of their Italian counterparts Idrostudi and BM Tecnologie in Trieste and Padua respectively, in the framework of the project “Water supply, sewerage networks, and future city development: Theoretical update and on-the-job training of the UKT staff members in view of the Territorial Reform”.

Representatives of UKT, the Albanian multi-utility managing the sewer and water supply networks of Tirana, and representatives of the Italian company Idrostudi srl, met in the Albanian capital on 14-17 April, in the framework of the 6-month Project “Water supply, sewerage networks, and future city development: Theoretical update and on-the-job training of the UKT staff members in view of the Territorial Reform”.

The CEI is glad to announce a new Call for Proposals for the CEI Know‐How Exchange Programme (KEP) ‐ ITALY. The projects will be co‐financed by the CEI Fund at the EBRD, entirely financed by the Italian Government.
  

The workshop on 22-23 April in Skopje (Macedonia) was organised within the one-year  KEP AUSTRIA Project Aim@Innovations aimed at strengthening national capacities for the provision of thematic trainings and consultancies in the area of innovation management to SMEs, start-ups and spinoffs in Macedonia. The project is co-financed by the Austrian Development Cooperation with 45.000 EUR.
 

A two-week study visit (3 - 17 March 2015) took place in Albania in the Shkodra, Malesi e Madhe and Puke Districts (Shkodra Region), in the framework of the one-year KEP AUSTRIA project for the development of a “New micro-credit scheme to women empowerment”. The Project is co-financed by the Austrian Development Cooperation with around 50.000 EUR.

Eighteen women from Foca, Srebrenica and Bratunac participated in a two-day training on power and economic leadership from 31 January to 1 February 2015 in the framework of the project “Smallholders Farmers’ Access to Markets in Eastern and Northern Bosnia-Herzegovina and Northern Albania” . The event focused on exploring the concept of power amongst women from different backgrounds, including entrepreneurs, farmers, civil society members and representatives from local communities.

The principles and tools of public participation in budgeting process were the topics of dicussions  at the two seminars on “Public Participation in Budgeting Process on Local Level” held in Cherkassy city on January 20-21 and in Vinnitsa city on January 22-23, 2015.
 
The seminars were organised in the framework of the Polish-Ukrainian Cooperation Foundation PAUCI Project entitled "Performance budgets in Cherkasy and Vinnitsa - support for good governance and financial transparency of local governments in Ukraine".
 

The interdisciplinary project,  “GisNS - Development of Online Geodata Portal of Cultural Heritage in Novi Sad” was successfully concluded on 22-23 January 2015 in Novi Sad, Serbia.

Countering youth unemployment in the northern part of Bosnia and Herzegovina (40%) is high on the agenda of  the Municipality of Gradiška. It is developing a new ICT business incubator, which aims at meeting the needs of young entrepreneurs for infrastructural, technical/education and ICT services for supporting the main economic branches in the region: agriculture and commerce.

The implementation of the Project PACKSENSOR, dedicated to sustainable food packaging and monitoring in South Serbia, officially started with a kick-off meeting in Leskovac on 14-15 January 2015.

The project, fully titled PACKSENSOR - The impact of the controlled atmosphere on quality and safety of the close-seal-packaged food applied in the SMEs of South Serbia, aims to provide solutions for monitoring the influence of packaging on food safety, currently not practiced by local firms due to the lack of trained personnel and proper equipment.

Nearly two decades after the end of the conflict in former Yugoslavia, Bosnia-Herzegovina remains one of the world's most mine contaminated countries with an estimated 2.5% of its territory at risk. The May floods have complicated the situation further, potentially contaminating the already cleared fields.

In order to further strengthen economic and social development in its non-EU members, the CEI is promoting synergies between the EU-funded project ener2i and the KEP AUSTRIA Project Innovation stimulation for Moldovan SMEs in the field of energy efficiency and renewable energies (CEI-ener2i-MD) promoted by the Austrian Centre for Social Innovation (ZSI).
 

Within the KEP AUSTRIA Call 2014, four project proposals were approved by the CEI Committee of National Coordinators in October 2014 with a total CEI grant amounting to 186.000 EUR and a total project cost of 381.309 EUR. These activities - selected among 117 applications which have undergone a two-step evaluation procedure - have recently started their implementation phase:
 

In the framework of the project “Renewable Energy Knowledge and Technology Transfer in Albania and in Bosnia–Herzegovina”, an awareness campaign for communities and municipalities has been launched in Albania, focusing on energy conservation, renewable energy and environmental protection.
 

The CEI Fund at the EBRD, entirely contributed by Italy, has approved nine projects in the framework of the CEI Know-How Exchange Programme (KEP ITALY) to be co-financed with 260.000 EUR, out of 70 submitted proposals. The selected projects support the alignment of the non-EU CEI Member States with European and international standards by transferring high-level know-how and expertise.

The interest in renewable sources is strong amongst Ukrainian stakeholders, especially thanks to the current political and consequent energy crisis. In particular, biomass-based heating systems are seen as an attractive alternative to natural gas supplies from Russia.

The Polish-Ukrainian Cooperation Foundation PAUCI conducted a training course on performance-based programme budgeting as a tool for good governance and financial transparency in Kyiv on 16-17 October, 2014.