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The South East Europe Programme (SEE) Annual Event 2013 took place on 19 June, 2013 in Bucharest, Romania with the aim to sum up SEE achievements for the period 2007-2013 in view of the new Programmes in the area.

The first session focused on main macro-regional strategies and policies as the basis for the development of the Programmes: the Danube Strategy for the Danube Programme and Adriatic-Ionian Strategy for the South East Gateway.

Within the framework of the EU-funded project “Accessibility improved at border crossings for the integration of South East Europe” (ACROSSEE) the first seminar  with the European Commission was held on 18 June in Brussels at the premises of the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region office.
The National Coordinators of the Central European Initiative met  in Vienna on 10 June 2013. In his welcome speech, Mr. Johannes Kyrle, Secretary General for Foreign Affairs, expressed his appreciation for the Hungarian CEI Presidency.
Organised by the Ministry for National Economy, Tourism Department, within the framework of the  Hungarian CEI Presidency of 2013, the CEI Expert Meeting on “Opportunities of Transnational Tourism Development in CEI countries” took place in Godollo (Budapest) on 6 June 2013.  
The CEI and the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO), in special partnership with the Konrad Adenauer Stiftung (KAS), have opened applications for the 2013 edition of the Award for Outstanding Merits in Investigative Journalism. This year the Award is including two sections: Professional Journalists (4.000 EUR) and Young Journalists up to 30 years of age (1.000 EUR).    
The 5th Annual Meeting of the Regional Cooperation Council on 30 May 2013 in Ohrid, Macedonia was co-chaired by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Macedonia Nikola Poposki and the RCC Secretary General Goran Svilanovic.
 
The European population is getting older which means that the number of people over 65 years of age is increasing. The ageing trend presents numerous social changes and challenges, for which adequate solutions need to be found. Ten partners from Italy, France, Spain, Greece, Portugal, Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina have just launched the “WIDER” project – “Green groWing of SMEs: Innovation and Development in the energy sector in mEd aRea”.
"Innovations and Changing Roles of Diplomacy and Diplomatic Training" was the main focus of this year’s 16th edition of the Dubrovnik Diplomatic Forum, held in Dubrovnik on 23-25 May 2013.  
“Adriatic-Ionian Macroregions as a response to common challenges in the region and a mechanism for EU accession of WB states to the EU” was the focus of the XV Adriatic and Ionian Council held in Brussels, on 27 May, under the Slovenian Presidency of the Adriatic and Ionian Initiative (AII).

One-week training for 30 state administration officials from Bosnia and Herzegovina is organised this week in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina.  The training “Western Balkans getting closer to the EU. Strengthening the capacity of the state institutions to meet the integration challenges today” is organized by the Bulgarian Diplomatic Institute together with its partner the Hanns-Seidel Foundation.

On 15-16 May 2013 the CENTRAL EUROPE Annual Conference took place in Padua, Italy at a crucial moment for transnational cooperation, since the programming period 2007 – 2013 is about to end and the new period 2014-2020 is about to be defined.

The programme authorities took this opportunity to collect inputs from stakeholders and project partners under the motto “Cooperating across borders to make our cities and regions a better place to live and work”.

The CEI as lead partner of the ADRIA A project participated in the initiative “Train to Europe, organised together with the Municipality of Monfalcone in the framework of the cooperation with the SETA project (South East Europe Cooperation Programme).  

The EU-supported project  SEEMORE (Sustainable and Energy Efficient Mobility Options in tourist Regions in Europe)  aims at showing that regional actors in 8 European coastal tourist regions are able to change the travel behaviour of their visitors towards more sustainable transport modes. Since transport and tourism are strictly inter-related, if an increase in transport is not properly managed, it can reduce the attractiveness of a tourism destination.

Press freedom in a country does not only depend on the politics. Christian Spahr, head of the Media Program South East Europe of the Konrad-Adenauer-Stiftung underlines this on the occasion of the World Press Freedom Day on 3rd May. “Especially in South East Europe it is visible that deficits of media freedom do not necessary result out of direct pressure from the politics.” All media players bear responsibility for media freedom, Spahr said. The region takes only average positions in global rankings.

On 23 April 2013, the Ukraine Dairy Market Forum took place in Kiev to launch a policy dialogue between the EBRD, FAO, the Ukrainian Ministry of Agrarian Policy and Food, key market regulators and players aiming at improving the climate for investments in the dairy sector and bringing cooperation between the private and public sectors to a new level. The Forum is one of the activities of a technical assistance project worth €60.000 supported by the CEI Fund at the EBRD contributed by Italy.

Lászlo Kövér, Speaker of the Hungarian National Assembly, opened the meeting of the CEI Parliamentary Dimension (PD), held in Budapest  on 24 April 2013. The meeting was chaired by Richárd Hörcsik, President of the CEI PD and head of the Hungarian Delegation to the CEI PD.

The 6th Conference on Creativity and Innovation took place in Pula (Croatia) on 19-20 April 2013, organised by the Croatian Network for Development and Creativity (MRAK), with the intention to assign the annual awards for creativity and innovation.

Ms. Selma Prodanovic, Short Term Expert within the EU-supported project “Improving Cooperation in South-East Europe by Actions for Strengthening the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) “, led by the CEI, participated in the panel dedicated to Creative Industry Potentials and Creative Industry Clusters.

Cooperation in areas such as minority rights and renewable energy was one of the topics on the agenda of the meeting between the CEI Secretary General and the OSCE Secretary General held on Friday 19 April at the CEI HQ. The OSCE SG Lamberto Zannier was received by CEI SG Giovanni Caracciolo di Vietri and the Alternate SG Margit Waestfelt.  
A CEI Ministerial Conference was held in Budapest on 15-16 April under the Hungarian Presidency to discuss on sustainable agriculture and its impacts in terms of rural development and environment protection.  
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