The successful completion of the project "Improving Cooperation in South-East Europe by Actions for Strengthening the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC)" was marked by a Final Conference held on 18 March 2014 in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.
The gathering entitled Enhancing Growth through Regional Action – South East Europe 2020 highlighted the major results of the Project and focused on the pending implementation of the RCC's South East Europe (SEE) 2020 Strategy.
“This project was one of the examples of the special attention the European Commission (EC) is paying to regional cooperation in SEE. The very concrete support EC provides to different regional structures actively engaged in the promotion and strengthening of regional cooperation is an important complement to the efforts the countries of the region are investing in their EU accession process,” said RCC Secretary General, Goran Svilanovic.
“The time frame of the Project implementation matched with some very important developments in the RCC: production of the Organisation’s Strategy and Work Programme 2014–2016, and creation and launching of our SEE 2020 Strategy, as its central pillar. The SEE 2020 will help us introduce a new period of regional cooperation, one having clear objectives and targets, one focused on those areas offering greatest potential for joint actions and results, and one with mechanisms to follow through on what has been agreed upon.”
The Project of 0.9 million EUR, aimed at supporting regional cohesion in South East Europe, the European Union (EU) enlargement process and strengthening of the RCC Secretariat was funded by the EU and co-funded and implemented by the Central European Initiative (CEI) for the past 28 months.
“We believe that economic growth and job-creation in the Western Balkan Countries are essential for citizens’ understanding of and support to the strengthening of common institutions. This is why the CEI in the year of its 25th anniversary is keen to validate its working system, enhancing regional transnational cooperation through a combination of multilateral diplomacy and project implementation,” said Margit Waestfelt, CEI Alternate Secretary General. “CEI mobilisation for cohesion and integration in the region will continue in a fully consistent way, with the strategic framework shaped by the SEE 2020 Strategy”.
The goal of the Austrian Presidency is to fully deploy the potential of the CEI as a clearing house between different regional and international organisations working in a geographic area stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea and from the Danube to the Adriatic Sea,” added Ambassador Heidemaria Guerer, Austrian Presidency of the CEI.
The CEI-led Project has had a positive multi-faceted impact: it has contributed to improving and enhancing regional cooperation, both at the level of transnational organisations and by networking of national stakeholders, in several specific areas and sectors in SEE, such as growth of local economies, rural innovation and creative industry. It has also stepped up the partnership-based cooperation between the RCC and the CEI.
It has succeeded in bringing together public broadcasters from 9 countries from the region participating in the European Association of Public Service Media in SEE around a joint production endeavour.
This cooperation resulted in a 90-minute documentary film entitled “How do I see my neighbour?”, which was jointly edited and aired in all the countries gathered around the project.
Renzo Daviddi, Deputy Head of the Delegation of the EU to Bosnia and Herzegovina said that countries of the South East Europe had to move closer in the same direction, that is joining the European Union. “This requires thorough economic reforms and the countries embarking on these reforms would benefit from them enormously. In that reagrd, the SEE 2020 Strategy is an important agenda for achieving this goal for the countries of the region, especially given the EU’s prioritisation of economic governance in the enlargement process.“
The project’s closing conference was organised by the CEI and the RCC Secretariats. The event was attended by the RCC and CEI representatives and diplomatic delegations of their participating countries in Sarajevo, by partners and stakeholders from the region, representatives of the European Commission and relevant international financial institutions, agencies and the private sector.
For more information: poli@cei.int
The gathering entitled Enhancing Growth through Regional Action – South East Europe 2020 highlighted the major results of the Project and focused on the pending implementation of the RCC's South East Europe (SEE) 2020 Strategy.
“This project was one of the examples of the special attention the European Commission (EC) is paying to regional cooperation in SEE. The very concrete support EC provides to different regional structures actively engaged in the promotion and strengthening of regional cooperation is an important complement to the efforts the countries of the region are investing in their EU accession process,” said RCC Secretary General, Goran Svilanovic.
“The time frame of the Project implementation matched with some very important developments in the RCC: production of the Organisation’s Strategy and Work Programme 2014–2016, and creation and launching of our SEE 2020 Strategy, as its central pillar. The SEE 2020 will help us introduce a new period of regional cooperation, one having clear objectives and targets, one focused on those areas offering greatest potential for joint actions and results, and one with mechanisms to follow through on what has been agreed upon.”
The Project of 0.9 million EUR, aimed at supporting regional cohesion in South East Europe, the European Union (EU) enlargement process and strengthening of the RCC Secretariat was funded by the EU and co-funded and implemented by the Central European Initiative (CEI) for the past 28 months.
“We believe that economic growth and job-creation in the Western Balkan Countries are essential for citizens’ understanding of and support to the strengthening of common institutions. This is why the CEI in the year of its 25th anniversary is keen to validate its working system, enhancing regional transnational cooperation through a combination of multilateral diplomacy and project implementation,” said Margit Waestfelt, CEI Alternate Secretary General. “CEI mobilisation for cohesion and integration in the region will continue in a fully consistent way, with the strategic framework shaped by the SEE 2020 Strategy”.
The goal of the Austrian Presidency is to fully deploy the potential of the CEI as a clearing house between different regional and international organisations working in a geographic area stretching from the Baltic Sea to the Black Sea and from the Danube to the Adriatic Sea,” added Ambassador Heidemaria Guerer, Austrian Presidency of the CEI.
The CEI-led Project has had a positive multi-faceted impact: it has contributed to improving and enhancing regional cooperation, both at the level of transnational organisations and by networking of national stakeholders, in several specific areas and sectors in SEE, such as growth of local economies, rural innovation and creative industry. It has also stepped up the partnership-based cooperation between the RCC and the CEI.
It has succeeded in bringing together public broadcasters from 9 countries from the region participating in the European Association of Public Service Media in SEE around a joint production endeavour.
This cooperation resulted in a 90-minute documentary film entitled “How do I see my neighbour?”, which was jointly edited and aired in all the countries gathered around the project.
Renzo Daviddi, Deputy Head of the Delegation of the EU to Bosnia and Herzegovina said that countries of the South East Europe had to move closer in the same direction, that is joining the European Union. “This requires thorough economic reforms and the countries embarking on these reforms would benefit from them enormously. In that reagrd, the SEE 2020 Strategy is an important agenda for achieving this goal for the countries of the region, especially given the EU’s prioritisation of economic governance in the enlargement process.“
The project’s closing conference was organised by the CEI and the RCC Secretariats. The event was attended by the RCC and CEI representatives and diplomatic delegations of their participating countries in Sarajevo, by partners and stakeholders from the region, representatives of the European Commission and relevant international financial institutions, agencies and the private sector.
For more information: poli@cei.int
- Programme available here
- Press Release in English available here
- Press Release in Serbian available here
- Video of event available here
- by CEI Alternate Secretary General, Margit Waestfelt available here
- by CEI National Coordinator, Heidemaria Guerer available here
- by CEI Project Manager, Ugo Poli available here
- by RCC Secretary General, Goran Svilanovic available here
- by RCC Project Coordinator, Sanjin Arifagic available here
- Photo Gallery available here