Committee of National Coordinators Meeting Vienna, 10 June, 2013 By Amb. Giovanni Caracciolo di Vietri, CEI Secretary General Distinguished colleagues, Let me start by thanking our host, the Austrian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and its Secretary General, Amb. Johannes Kyrle. This is my second CNC, after two months from our previous meeting in London. During this period, I have had the opportunity to deepen my knowledge of the CEI, of its assets and main activities. Even more important, I have had my first consultations with some representatives of the European Commission in Brussels, namely at the DG for Enlargement and the DG for Regional Policy, which proved extremely fruitful, also to understand how the CEI is perceived from the outside. Allow me some frankness if I say that the feedback I received was not always positive. Besides some scepticism, mainly due to our still limited visibility, I collected encouraging reactions when I pointed out our main strengths: a large membership able to bridge existing and future macroregional strategies, thus helping remove potential new dividing lines in Central, Eastern and South- Eastern Europe; and a strong operational approach that makes us stand out as a unique example of a result-driven and project-oriented regional organisation. It is around these two pillars that we have to build our future action and a joint communication plan aiming to strengthen CEI visibility both in Brussels and in our region. 2013 is a crucial year of reflection for our organisation, and I am particularly glad the current Hungarian CEI Presidency is providing the necessary enthusiasm and dynamism to successfully lead this process, whose final outcome will be our new CEI Plan of Action. - 1 -
While thanking you for all the inputs you have provided so far, I wish to highlight the decisive importance of this document, which will channel our efforts into a common and agreed direction in the tri-annual period 2014-16. The Plan of Action will enter into force in 2014, a year of important celebrations including the 100 th anniversary of the beginning of World War I and the 25 th anniversary of the CEI. Moreover, the new EU Multiannual Financial Framework 2014 2020 will be launched in parallel. Our organisation shall be well equipped to align to the quickly-evolving European political landscape, thus calling for a clear and shared roadmap based on capitalisation of past achievements: it is my belief that following up on previous success stories and best practices is crucial in order to enhance the impact of our forthcoming activities, as well as to better manage our resources. Regional cooperation has been attracting renovated interest during the last years, mainly because of macro-regional strategies launched at EU level. We are aware of the fact that such strategies do not envisage the creation of new institutional structures. Therefore, this is a great chance for the CEI to become a key-actor in the strategies implementation, provided that our organisation is fully committed to a constant improvement of its records and working methodology. This is the rationale behind the elaboration of the CEI Plan of Action, which will comprise feasible activities to be implemented in the near future, and measures to be taken with the aim to strengthen all aspects of our organisation. In this regard, special attention will be paid to the Business Dimension, which will be discussed today on the basis of the consolidated document Revisiting the CEI Business Dimension. Dear colleagues, I guess you share my view that we are facing a period of important evolutions in the field of international relations, even more evident in the region targeted by our organisation. This opens up new opportunities to promote successful regional cooperation: nevertheless, the CEI has to be fast and flexible enough to seize the day and build upon these opportunities in order to fully exploit its potential. The elaboration of an up-to-date Plan of Action, which has to be realistic and ambitious at one time, is the first step in this direction. The second will be its implementation: I - 2 -
am convinced that, with the help of the future Austrian Presidency, the CEI will successfully put into practice the provisions of the Plan of Action, thus becoming a stronger regional player able to deliver tangible benefits to its Member States. ***** I now wish to mention the activities the CEI Secretariat has had the opportunity to organise and participate in after the CNC meeting in London: On 19 April 2013, I met Lamberto Zannier, Secretary General of the OSCE at the CEI Headquarters. We mainly discussed possible cooperation relations in areas such as minority rights and renewable energy. It was a second official meeting after the visit held last February in Vienna by the then SG ad interim, Giorgio Rosso Cicogna, aimed at identifying areas of cooperation between the two intergovernmental organizations. During the meeting, it was underlined that there are real prospects of cooperation in areas related to the economic and environmental dimension as well in minority rights, civil society, human rights and combating border crime as well as media (with reference to the ANSA portal). In particular, I believe that the OSCE experience in the field of minorities could highly contribute to the scientific evaluation of the CEI Instrument for the Protection Minority Rights, elaborated almost twenty years ago. In the field of renewable energy, a possible cooperation has already been envisaged in view to enhance the CEI experience in promoting the advanced bio-fuels. As a follow up of the meeting, a set of long-term joint actions will be defined involving the two Secretariats and the member countries of both organisations. On 27 May I participated in the XV Adriatic and Ionian Council in Brussels. The main focus of the gathering organised under the Slovenian Presidency of the Adriatic and Ionian Initiative (AII) was the Adriatic-Ionian Macroregions as a response to common challenges in the region and a mechanism for EU accession of WB states to the EU. Since EU macro-regional strategies certainly do not imply the creation of new institutional structures, existing organisations such as the CEI or the AII represent the ideal partners to complement and put in practice the provisions of these strategies while encouraging coordination and synergies towards good neighbourly relations and a climate conducive to jointly address cross- - 3 -
border, transnational and interregional issues which cannot be effectively tackled from a national perspective. On 30 May our Deputy Secretary General also participated in the Regional Cooperation Council annual meeting in Ohrid co-chaired by the Minister for Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Macedonia Nikola Poposki and the RCC Secretary General Goran Svilanovic and the RCC Secretary General Goran Svilanovic. Minister Poposki expressed his confidence that regional cooperation in South-East Europe would soon reach a level of cooperation between the countries of Scandinavia. In his address, CEI DSG Z. Jovanovic underlined that closer relations between the key players were necessary in order to further strengthen regional cooperation. The CEI DSG also took part in the Formal Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the SEECP, on 31 May 2013 in Ohrid. The Ministers discussed the situation in South Eastern Europe, the role of the SEECP as a political forum and the perspectives for the EU enlargement process concerning the countries in the region. As for our EU co-funded projects the following events have taken place: On 15-April: The CEI as lead partner of the EU-funded project ADRIA A - Accessibility and Development for the Re-launch of the Inner Adriatic Area, organised the presentation of the preliminary studies on the Italian railroad network, in cooperation with the project partner the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region. On 11 may 2013 also with regard to the ADRIA A project, I wish to highlight that the CEI, as lead partner of the project, also 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). It was an opportunity to make a general presentation of the ADRIA A and SETA projects at the Municipality of Monfalcone, followed by a train journey. The train stopped at the stations of Monfalcone, Opicina, Sežana, Divača and Rijeka. At the Divača train station the CEI - 4 -
representatives held a presentation on the existing bottlenecks on the railway cross-border infrastructure and the possible solutions currently under evaluation by the ADRIA A project. The aim of this initiative was to foster the spirit of cooperation and friendship among citizens, institutions of the project and the railroad operators of Italy, Slovenia and Croatia. Once in Rijeka, the cities of Monfalcone, Koper and Rijeka signed a protocol for the establishment of a European Economic Interest Group EEIG with the aim of focusing on the future European funds in the next programming period 2014-2020. On 19-20 April: The 6th Conference on Creativity and Innovation took place in Pula (Croatia), 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. On 7-8 May 2013: Within the framework of the EU-supported project SEEMORE (Sustainable and Energy Efficient Mobility Options in tourist Regions in Europe) the third SEEMORE Consortium meeting, was held in Palma de Mallorca (Spain). The CEI which is one of the project partners organised a Transfer Workshop which offered the opportunity to exchange experience regarding actions for improving public transport services reaching tourist attractions and for making transport information available to tourists. SEEMORE is financed by the EU Programme IEE (Intelligent Energy Europe) with an overall budget of 1.974.225 EUR. Launched in March 2012, the project will last 36 months. On 27-28 May the Kick-off meeting of the WIDER project, Green growing of SMEs: Innovation and Development in the energy sector in med area was hosted by the Thessaloniki Chamber of Commerce and Industry. the CEI attended th eevent as project partner in charge of promoting networking and of disseminating activities throughout its Member States. WIDER deals with issues related to the ageing population as it aims to enhance the exchange of knowledge and innovations as well as improve the position of new products for small and medium-sized - 5 -
companies following the whole delivery chain of eco-smart apartments for independent living of the elderly in seven regional industrial Mediterranean areas. It is co-financed by the EU Programme MED (2007-2013) with an overall budget of around 2.5M EUR. Later on today, Mr. Giorgio Rosso Cicogna will touch upon the various projects which are in the pipeline and in particular he will provide you with information regarding three pilot projects he is working on, regarding Science and Technology. I wish to highlight that the CEI is gaining more and more expertise in the field of EU project management, surely one of the most dynamic CEI fields of work that perfectly represents the CEI core mission of promoting regional cooperation for European integration by acting as a bridge between macro-regions. 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. On 15-16 May the CEI participated in the CENTRAL EUROPE Annual Conference in Padua, Italy. It was organised 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 CEI attended the event dedicated to Intelligent Transport Systems (ITS) and participated in transport workshops as partner of Central Europe EDITS Project. 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. In May, within the CEI know-how Exchange Programme AUSTRIA, a one week training programme on EU accession took place in Sarajevo: 30 state administration officials from Bosnia and Herzegovina participated in the event. The training Western Balkans getting closer to the - 6 -
EU. Strengthening the capacity of the state institutions to meet the integration challenges today was organised by the Bulgarian Diplomatic Institute together with its partner the Hanns- Seidel Foundation. This is the fourth and final seminar of the know-how exchange project supported by the KEP AUSTRIA Programme, with funding from the Austrian Development Cooperation. The main aim of the event was to establish trained-up team, familiarised with the challenges and impediments on their way towards EU accession but also with the methods and techniques, used by Bulgaria to overcome them. On 23-25 May the CEI attended its long-standing feature event in the field of Human Resource development, the 16th Dubrovnik Diplomatic Forum. Innovations and Changing Roles of Diplomacy and Diplomatic Training" was the main focus of this year s event. The Annual Dubrovnik Diplomatic Forum started as an international conference in the field of diplomacy and diplomatic training, which over the years has grown into an annual event, unique of its kind in this part of Europe. The event is co-financed by the CEI Cooperation Fund. Our Alternate Secretary General, Amb. Margit Waestfelt, participated in the closing session. Last but not least, I wish to remind you that we have recently launched the Call for Proposals for co-financing the CEI cooperation activities through our Cooperation Fund. The deadline is 30 June 2013. - 7 -