Future role of the RCC and its Strategic Work Programme for 2011-2013 was in focus of a meeting between RCC Secretary General Hido Biscevic and Director General for Enlargement in the European Commission Michael Leigh, held in Brussels today.

The RCC Secretary General, Hido Biscevic, and the Montenegrin Prime Minister, Milo Djukanovic, discussed in Podgorica today political developments in South East Europe (SEE) and importance of the SEE countries’ steady progress towards EU integration.

The RCC Secretary General, Hido Biscevic, met today with the Chairman of the Council of Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Nikola Spiric, and informed him of the new phase of RCC activities following the initial period of the organization’s profiling as the key driver of regional cooperation in South East Europe (SEE).

A two-day initial meeting of the Regional Expert Network on Energy in South East Europe (SEE), which ended today at the RCC Secretariat in Sarajevo, discussed the energy policies in the region and its future activities, and produced appropriate documents in terms of its work plan and agenda.

The delegation of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) Secretariat, headed by the Deputy RCC Secretary General, Jelica Minić, visited the Joint Research Centre – Institute for Prospective Technological Studies (JRC-IPTS) in Seville, Spain on 18 December 2009. The meeting, hosted by IPTS Director, Peter Kind, and co-organized by the Centre for eGovernance Development in South East Europe, helped exchange information on the activities of the three institutions and explored avenues for future cooperation.

Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), Hido Biščević, and the Chairman of the Assembly of the Standing Working Group for Regional Rural Development (SWG RRD), Dušan Nešković, signed today at the RCC Secretariat in Sarajevo a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on cooperation on rural development in South East Europe.

The organizational board of the South East European Women Entrepreneurs drafted today at the RCC Secretariat in Sarajevo relevant documents and agreed on further steps in preparing its 2010 Conference, which will be held in the framework of the Turkish Chairmanship-in-Office of the South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP).

On 23-24 November 2009, the RCC Secretariat hosted in Sarajevo a regional workshop on enhancing comprehensive cooperation in combating illicit drugs trafficking in South East Europe (SEE). The event was organized together with the Strategic Police Matters Unit of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE).

The RCC Secretary General, Hido Biščević, participated in a meeting of Heads of Government of the Member States of the Central European Initiative (CEI) in Bucharest today. Secretary General Biščević extended his congratulations on the occasion of the twentieth anniversary of successful cooperation and achievements of the Central European Initiative.

A panel lecture Global Economic Crisis: Implications and the Way Out for Turkey, Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Western Balkans was organized in Sarajevo today by the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) Secretariat, the Economic Policy Research Foundation of Turkey (TEPAV) and the Faculty of Economics of the University of Sarajevo.