News
In 2010, the Italian Government, through the CEI Trust Fund at the EBRD, has committed €1,075,500 towards seven Technical Cooperation (TC) assignments. The distribution of the projects follows the CEI priorities: geographically, three projects have regional outreach, while the others specifically target Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, and Serbia. The project distribution by sectors shows an emphasis on infrastructure (two projects in transport and two projects in energy) and SMEs and general development (one and two projects, respectively).
Parliamentary delegations of CEI Member States gathered in Budva on 27 November for the annual session of the CEI Parliamentary Assembly, organised in the framework of the Montenegrin CEI Presidency.
On 9 December, the SEETAC Project (South East European Transport Axis Cooperation), co-financed by the European Commission, through the Trans-National Cooperation Programme South East Europe, was successfully presented at the European Parliament in Brussels during an event co-organised by the Central European Initiative and hosted by Hon. Antonio Cancian (Transport and Tourism Committee of the European Parliament).
The Central European Initiative was one of the partners of the IV South East Europe Media Forum, held in Budapest on 2-3 December and organised by the WAZ Media Group (Germany's third largest newspaper and magazine publisher), the Konrad Adenauer Foundation (KAS) and the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO).
The 6th Annual Ministerial Meeting on the Development of the South East Europe Core Regional Transport Network was held in Sarajevo on 1 December 2010 to discuss mainly on "Common Problems and Shared Solutions".
On 30 November, the CEI participated in the Dialogue Forum for Innovation in ICT for the Western Balkan Countries organised in Belgrade, in the context of the WINS ICT Project (Western Balkan Countries Inco-Net Support in the field of ICT).
Sustainable Urban Goods Logistics Achieved by Regional and Local Policies (SUGAR) is a Project co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and made possible by the Interreg IV C Programme.
On 22 November 2010, the municipality of Monfalcone, with the support of the Central European Initiative, hosted the kick-off meeting of the ADRIA A Project.
The X CEI Youth Forum "Education and Employment of Young People - Challenges and Perspectives" was held in Budva on 25 and 26 November 2010, under the Montenegrin Presidency of the Central European Initiative (CEI).
The 23rd Meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) was held on 26 November 2010 in Thessaloniki with the theme “Green Development and Entrepreneurship”.
On 16 of November, the Central European Initiative has successfully organised in Tirana the seminar on “Urban Freight Management: an Exchange of Good Practices in the European context and beyond” in the framework of the SUGAR Project (Sustainable Urban Goods logistics Achieved by Regional and local policies), co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund and made possible by the INTERREG IVC programme.
The CEI Human Resources Development Forum, a long-standing CEI Feature Event, took place in Prague on 18 – 19 November 2010.
The Montenegrin Academy of Sciences and Arts, in cooperation with the Ministries of Foreign Affairs and of Education and Sciences of Montenegro and in cooperation with the Central European Initiative, organised an International Scientific Conference on Research and Development as a Basis for Innovation in Creating the Competitive CEI Region”, in Podgorica (12-13 November 2010).
Promoted by the European Commission Directorate - General for Research and together with the EU Belgian Presidency and hosted by the Ministry of Education and Sciences of Montenegro, the meeting of the Steering Platform on Research for the Balkans was held in Budva on 11 November 2010.
Following the first Ministerial Conference held in Bucharest, Romania (3-4 February 2010), SEETAC’s (South East European Transport Axis Cooperation) Second Ministerial Conference took place in Tirana, on 16 November 2010.
On 8-9 November 2010, the International Centre for Theoretical Physics organised in Trieste a conference entitled “ICTP after 45; Science and Development for a Changing World”.
The implementation of the CEI Trust Fund supported Know-how Exchange project AER Peer Review on Energy in Vojvodina on “How to create sustainable energy communities within our regions?” has started at the beginning of this month.
The awarding ceremony took place in Trieste, on 23 October, on the occasion of the opening of the exhibition of the Ninth International Design Competition Trieste Contemporanea.
On 27 October, the Minister of Economy of Montenegro, Branko Vujovic, opened in Podgorica a regional conference on "Renewable Energy Sources and Their Applications", organized under the Montenegrin Presidency by the Montenegrin Academy of Arts and Sciences, the Ministry of Economy and the Office of Sustainable Development of Montenegro.
"Today when the economies of our countries begin to recover after the global crisis, we are aware of the importance of investments for economic growth and for the entire economy of each of our countries” said the Minister of Economy of Montenegro Branko Vujovic, in his opening speech at the CEI Meeting of Ministers of Economy on "Investment Promotion", organized under the Montenegro CEI Presidency of 2010 in Podgorica on 28 October 2010.