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The CNC Meeting held after the Steering Committee Meeting on 11 April 2014 in London, focused on the forthcoming activities and events taking place under the Austrian CEI Presidency. Particular attention was paid to the preparations of the Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs on 3 June 2014 in Vienna, back to back with a Western Balkans Conference in the 1914-2014 context, commemorating the anniversary of the outbreak of World War I.
On 11 April 2014, the CEI Steering Committee met in London at the Headquarters of the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD). The CEI National Coordinators and the representatives from the CEI countries at the EBRD Board of Directors approved the Budget 2014 of the CEI Fund at the EBRD.
The Embassy of Austria, under the Austrian CEI Presidency 2014, and the School of Slavonic and East European Studies (SSEES) of the University College London organised on 10 April 2014 in London an International Symposium under the title “25 Years of the Central European Initiative and 25 Years from the Fall of the Iron Curtain”.

Public and private companies and organisations, PPPs, international organisations and NGOs operating in the public interest are invited to apply for CEI co-financing through the CEI Know-how Exchange Programme AUSTRIA (KEP AUSTRIA).

The third SEEMORE Transfer Workshop took place in Cesenatico (Provincia Forlì-Cesena, Italy) on 4 April 2014. Organised by the CEI within the framework of the SEEMORE Project, the workshop gathered all SEEMORE Partners as well as local stakeholders and external guests active in the fields of mobility and tourism.

The ACROSSEE Project aims at establishing a large and coherent platform that will contribute to rationalising and optimising the existing transport network in South-East Europe (SEE). It is promoted by the CEI through its Secretariat as Lead Partner, in cooperation with 24 partner institutions from 13 countries and co-financed by the SEE transnational programme.

The workshop “Cultural Heritage 3D Surveying and Modeling” was organised on 26-28 March 2014 at the Faculty of Technical Sciences (FTN) within the interdisciplinary project “GisNS - Development of Online Geodata Portal of Cultural Heritage in Novi Sad”. It aimed at countering missing digitised 3D Cultural Heritage assets within the geo-data portal of Novi Sad.

The WBC-INCO.NET Final Conference "Towards 2020: New Horizons for RTD and Western Innovation in the Balkan Region” was held in Vienna on 27-28 March 2014, bringing together about 200 science policymakers, scientists and industry representatives from the Western Balkans and EU Member States. The main focus of the event was on the EU Framework programme for research and innovation, Horizon 2020, and on the collaboration in the field of science between Western Balkan Countries (WBC) and EU countries.

The CEI Cooperation Fund, financed by all Member States, supports small-scale projects mainly taking the form of seminars, workshops, short training courses or other kinds of events. In 2013 the CEI co-funded 57 projects with an overall approved funding amounting to 506.560,50 EUR and an average funding per project of around 8000 EUR. 

Public and private institutions registered in a CEI Member State as well as international and regional organisations are invited to apply for  CEI co-financing 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 CEI Fund at the EBRD - entirely supported by Italy - contributes with 40.000 EUR to the 2nd edition of the International Master’s in Public Procurement Management (PPM) to enable the attendance of students from non-EU CEI member countries.
 
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.

The Presidency of the Central European Initiative (CEI) is gravely concerned by the violation of Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity by Russian armed forces and calls on Russia for an immediate withdrawal.

The Presidency of the CEI underlines the importance of the respect of the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of Ukraine including Crimea.

Several economic and engineering studies carried out within the ADRIA A Project were presented at the ADRIA A mid-term conference held in Nova Gorica (Slovenia) on 26 February 2014, thus illustrating the results achieved within the project so far.

The major outcomes of the project “Improving environmental and disaster prevention capacity in Serbia” were presented during the final conference held on 25-26 February in Bologna, Italy.

The project is implemented in the framework of the Know-how Exchange Programme (KEP), financed by the CEI Fund at the EBRD, entirely supported by the Italian Government, with a grant of 35.500 EUR and total cost of the project of  80.200 EUR.

The EBRD Private Sector for Food Security Initiative gives voice to private sector needs and facilitates the private sector’s contribution in the process of setting priorities for global food security. The Initiative was launched in November 2011 and is led by the EBRD Agribusiness Department and the Office of the Chief Economist.
 
On 18 February 2014, the first expert workshop of the BIOGOS Project was held in Belgrade at the Serbian Chamber of Commerce.
 
In the framework of the EU-funded project “Improving Cooperation in SEE by Actions for Strengthening the RCC” on 10 February 2014 the CEI organised in Ljubljana - in its capacity as lead partner - a joint meeting of Ombudsman Offices of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo*, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey.
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The 2nd Steering Committee Meeting of the DESIGN-MTS Project was held on 13 December in Brussels at the premises of CSR Europe, Project Partner. The partnership consortium discussed the ongoing activities and the results achieved so far, i.e. the Existing Analysis Report and the European Best Practices Report. Special focus was given to the elaboration of the draft sector-wide joint set of commitments as well as to the forthcoming operational activities.

Within the EU-funded project entitled “Improving Cooperation in SEE by Actions for Strengthening the RCC” a Regional Sector Stakeholders’ Conference on Creative Industry was organised by the CEI in Sarajevo on 29 January, 2014.  

More than fifty participants from South-eastern Europe attended the gathering to debate the role of design in the Balkan region, as an advantage for innovation in many fields, from spatial planning to cultural communication and marketing of manufacturers’ outputs.

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