CEI Alternate Secretary General, Mr. Giorgio Rosso Cicogna, visited Belgrade on April 7 and 8, 2011 for consultations with the CEI Serbian Presidency in view of the organisation of several events to be held in the months to come. In a meeting with Prof. Milos Banjac, Assistant Minister for Infrastructure and Energy, and some top advisors of the Ministry, the topics for the next Ministerial Conference for Energy to be held next autumn were thoroughly considered. Among these: promoting the prospects for renewable energy in the region, including a proposed integrated project on Next Generation Biofuels; strengthening the efforts in fuel efficiency; upgrading and integration of national electric grids. This Conference will be preceded by an international high-level expert meeting, which is also sponsored by CEI.
Mr. Rosso Cicogna also met the Secretary of State for Science, Prof. Radivoj Mitrovic, together with the Assistant Minister Viktor Nedović, who had accompanied him also in the previous meeting, in order to ensure appropriate coordination of research and development to be applied to renewable energies. The prospects for access of the CEI scientific communities to the activities of the Synchrotron Radiation Laboratory Elettra and to the new Free Electron Laser Laboratory Fermi, both located in Trieste, were also discussed in depth. As a result, the CEI Presidency intends to convene in Autumn this year in Trieste a Ministerial Meeting on Science and Technology, focused on the above proposal as well as on a possible regional and interdisciplinary R&D project on Next Generation Biofuels. CEI Alternate Secretary General also met Assistant Minister for Agriculture, Mr. Milos Milovanovic, to exchange views on the next CEI Ministerial Conference on Agriculture focusing on the role of small farmers of the region in this era of globalisation, to be held in Belgrade and Novi Sad on 13 -14 May 2011.