News
The 3rd Transnational Working Group meeting of the project “Attractive Urban Public Transport for Accessible Cities (ATTAC)” project took place in Bologna, Italy, on 27-28 June, hosted by the Institute of Transport and Logistics.
Under the title "The Future Built on the Present", the South East Europe (SEE) Programme Annual Conference was held in Bologna on 29 June 2012. This year’s key territorial cooperation event in South-Eastern Europe has offered an excellent platform for disseminating the main results of the South-East European Transport Axis Cooperation Project (SEETAC) among the numerous participants as well as for networking with relevant stakeholders.
Within the framework of the project funded by the European Commission, aimed at “Improving Cooperation in South-East Europe by Actions for Strengthening the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC)”, the Central European Initiative organised a workshop on e-diplomacy at the RCC Headquarters in Sarajevo on 25 – 26 June 2012.
On 25-26 September, two seminars will be organised in Trieste (Italy) by the Central European Initiative, in cooperation with Confindustria (federation of Italian industry and services companies), the EBRD (European Bank for Reconstruction and Development), and with the support of the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
The Workshop “Guidelines for Rural Tourism Development” was held in Zajecar, Eastern Serbia on 12 -14 June, 2012 as part of the project “Meeting of EU Standards through Rural Tourism Development in Timok Region”, financed by the CEI within the Know-how Exchange Programme - KEP AUSTRIA.
The Committee of National Coordinators, which gathered in Trieste on 12 June 2012, has decided to extend the deadline of the Calls for Proposals of the CEI Cooperation Fund and the CEI Know-how Exchange Programme (KEP). The new deadline is 20 July 2012.
The Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the CEI Member States (Trieste, 13 June 2012), was dedicated to the topic “Regional Cooperation for European Integration and Bridge between Macro-regions”. The Ministerial meeting was chaired by the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Mr. Kostyantyn Gryschenko and offered the opportunity to assess recent developments in the region. All participants underlined the crucial role of the CEI as political forum in support of the European integration process and economic reforms of the countries of South-Eastern and Eastern Europe.
During their meeting in Trieste, on 12 June 2012, the CEI Committee of National Coordinators approved five technical cooperation projects for financing through the CEI Fund at the EBRD - entirely financed by the Italian Government. The overall commitment roughly amounts to 900,000 EUR.
Under the motto “Regional Cooperation for European Integration and Bridge between Macro-regions”, the CEI Ministerial Meeting in Trieste on 13 June 2012 will be chaired by H.E. Mr. Kostyantyn Gryshchenko, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, which holds the CEI Presidency for 2012, and envisages the participation of Foreign Ministers and State Secretaries of the 18 CEI Member States.
Amb. Gerhard Pfanzelter, CEI Secretary General, and Amb. Elena Kirtcheva, the Secretary General of the Vienna Economic Forum met at the CEI Headquarters in Trieste on 4 June 2012 in order to sign a Memorandum of Understanding for enhancing cooperation between the two organisations and developing joint activities.
A delegation from 4 Municipalities from Serbia (Smederevo, Užice, Novi Kneževac, and Knjaževac) participated in a study tour in Slovenia, on 24-26 May 2012, organised within the Project “System of Harmless Disposal of Animal Waste in 4 Municipalities in Serbia”, financed by the CEI within its KEP AUSTRIA programme.
Representatives of 31 Business Support Organizations (BSOs) from Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine participated in the training seminar held in Kiev on 24-25 May within 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.
The meeting of the Parliamentary Committee of the CEI Parliamentary Dimension on "Tourism and Mobility of Citizens as Important Components of Interaction of the Countries of the Central European Initiative. Legislative Support: Experience, Cooperation, Challenges and Problems" was held at the Verkhovna Rada, the Ukrainian Parliament, on 24 May 2012.
Transport and infrastructure ministerial representatives of Albania, Austria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Italy, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia, Ukraine (SEETAC partner countries), the European Commission (DG Enlargement and DG Mobility and Transport), the European Investment Bank (EIB), regional organisations (RCC and SEETO) and transport operators (International Road Union, Trainose, the Hellenic Railways Organisation and the Hellenic Regulatory Authority for Railways), gathered in Athens on 22 May, to discuss investment coordination in transport inf
Donor representatives from Austria to the United States met at the EBRD's Headquarters in London on 17 May ahead of the Bank's Annual Meeting and Business Forum.
A project developing a dedicated videoconference network and appropriate training addressed to a broad spectrum of institutional users was presented by the Central European Initiative (CEI) at the World Summit on the Information Society in Geneva (14-18 May). Organised by four United Nations organisations (ITU, UNESCO, UNCTAD, UNDP), the event has attracted over 1500 participants from governments, the business sector and civil society, either present in person at the UN Palais de Nations or involved through remote participation.
7 post-graduate level courses, taking the form of summer schools and seminars, have been approved by the CEI University Network Executive Board.
The Network, entirely funded by Italy, is an instrument dedicated to higher education in order to foster the mobility of students and teaching staff among universities and other institutions of higher learning in Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe.
The CEI Fund at the EBRD will be replenished in 2012 with 2 million EUR: the official announcement was released by the Italian Ministry of Foreign Affairs on the occasion of the last CEI Steering Committee Meeting on 27 April at the EBRD Headquarters in London.