News
On 28 September 2012, the Monitoring Committee of the South East Europe Programme confirmed the approval of the Project Accessibility Improved at Border Crossings for the Integration of South-East Europe (ACROSSEE), for an overall budget of 3.025.246,64 EUR.
“There is a strong need to reinforce institutional and technical co-operation in order to speed up the actual realisation of this Corridor by improving the cross border connections and concentrating funds on clear priorities” said CEI Alternate Secretary General, Giorgio Rosso Cicogna on the occasion of the Conference “Pan-European Intermodal Corridors: an Opportunity to Kick – start the Economic Growth”, organised by the Italian Chamber of Commerce for Hungary on 2 October, 2012 in Budapest.
Upon the invitation of the Hungarian Minister for Foreign Affairs, Janos Martonyi, CEI Secretary General Gerhard Pfanzelter paid a working visit to Budapest on 2 October 2012.
Hungary, a founding member of the Central European Initiative (CEI), is taking over the Presidency in 2013. The visit offered the opportunity for a preliminary exchange of views on the objectives and priorities of the Hungarian Presidency.
The meeting of the CEI Parliamentary Assembly, under the title “The Transportation Infrastructure Improvement as an Effective Tool for Intensifying Interaction Among CEI Countries”, was held on 26-28 September 2012 at the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine in Kyiv, under the Ukrainian Presidency.
The European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) places special emphasis on capacity building in its countries of operations, but also in the business community of all shareholder countries, including Italy. Public procurement occupies a central place within the Bank’s core objectives of fostering efficient use of public funds, contributing to institutional strengthening, corporate governance and internal capacity building.
Ministers of Science and their representatives from 18 CEI Member States, together with High Officials from the European Commission and from international scientific institutions attended the CEI Ministerial Meeting on Science and Technology in Trieste on 19 September 2012.
The Ministerial Meeting on Science and Technology was officially opened today in Trieste at Synchtron facility (Elettra) and Free Electron Laser Laboratory (Fermi) under the chairmanship of the First Deputy Minister of Education of Ukraine, Sulima Yevhen.
The CEI Ministerial Meeting on Science and Technology is taking place in Trieste on 19 September 2012, followed by a Ministerial Conference on Next Generation Biofuels on 20 September 2012.
The 18th edition of the CEI International Summer School “Beyond the Enlargement. The Wider Europe and the New Neighbourhood” has started in Cervia on 3 September and wil last until 14 September 2012.
On the occasion of the official opening of the 27th Vilenica International Literary Festival, held on 5 September in Lipica, Slovenia, CEI Deputy Secretary General Zoran Jovanovic awarded the CEI Fellowship for Writers in Residence 2012 to Ajla Terzić, from Bosnia and Herzegovina.
In the context of the EU funded project “Improving Cooperation in South-East Europe by Actions for Strengthening the Regional Cooperation Council” a group of CEI and RCC representatives paid a visit to the Council of the Baltic Sea States (CBSS) in Stockholm on 3-4 September 2012.
CEI Secretary General, Ambassador Gerhard Pfanzelter, participated in the Bled Strategic Forum which took place on 2-3 September 2012. On that occasion, Ambassador Pfanzelter had several informal and formal meetings with a number of distinguished guests and participants.
The 20th International Congress of Chemical and Process Engineering (CHISA 2012) was held in Prague on 25-29 August, with an attendance of almost one thousand participants mainly from Europe (EU and non-EU Member States) as well as from more than 30 countries worldwide.
High-level Ministerial Representatives on Transport and Infrastructure from Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, the European Commission (DG Mobility and Transport), regional organisations (CEFTA, RCC and SEETO) and the South East Europe Joint Technical Secretariat (SEE JTS), gathered in Bled on 29 August 2012, in order to discuss the outcomes and results accomplished by the cooperation among the partners of the SEETAC project - South East European Transport Axis Cooperation.
The first meeting of the project “Rail Hub Cities for South East Europe” (Rail4SEE) was held in Bologna, Italy, on 26-27 July, hosted by the Province of Bologna, Lead Partner of the project. The CEI, which is one of the project partners, attended the meeting and introduced the road map for the implementation of the actions related to the work package “Passengers demand / supply and behaviours”. Moreover, the CEI gave an overview of the main transport characteristics of Trieste and Venice hubs.
In the framework of the project Financial Facilities for SMEs: Training and Capacity Building for Business Support Organisations in non-EU Member States of the Central European Initiative - FIT4SMEs II, three trainings were organised in Tirana (Albania) on 15-16 March 2012, Belgrade (Serbia) on 3-4 April 2012, and Kyiv (Ukraine) on 23-24 April 2012.
Two important meetings of the CEI Parliamentary Dimension gathered the parliamentarians of the 18 CEI Member States: the Parliamentary Committee meeting, held on 24 May 2012 in Kiev (Ukraine), and the meeting of the General Committee on Cultural Affairs, held on 27 April 2012 in Bolzano (Italy).
The Central European Initiative (CEI) Prize of the 10th International Design Contest “Trieste Contemporanea” 2012 has been assigned to Croatian designer Ena Priselec for her project to refashion a coffee grinder.
For this year’s Contest, which registered about 200 participants, artists and designers were asked to select a functional object from the recent past and propose an idea for its redefinition or reuse.
The 4th Steering Committee of the project “Improving Cooperation in South East Europe by Actions for Strengthening the RCC”, to be held on 17-18 July, 2012 at the CEI premises in Trieste, Italy, will focus on the progress achieved so far as well as on the forthcoming activities: design of a pilot ICT platform, production of a documentary under the title “How do I See My Neighbour”, foresights on IPA 2013 – 2020 programming guidelines, study visits to the Nordic Institutions.