The Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) Secretariat launched a series of consultative workshops in Skopje on 10 September, presenting the draft South East Europe (SEE) 2020 strategy to a wide range of interested stakeholders. The main intention of the workshop is to engage in broader consultations on the final draft of the SEE 2020 strategy and expand the stakeholders’ base to include governments/line ministries, regional initiatives, civil society, private business sector, donors and other interested parties.

The basic goal of the SEE 2020 strategy is to improve living conditions in the region and bring competitiveness and development back in focus. In that sense, the document draws inspiration from the EU strategy Europe 2020. Its most important targets include: employment growth from 39% to 44%, increase of total regional trade turnover by more than double, from 94 to 210 billion euro, the rise of the region’s GDP per capita from current 36% to 44% of the EU average, and addition of 300,000 highly qualified people to the workforce.

Achieving these targets should contribute to generating 1 million new jobs in South East Europe by 2020. To make this happen, innovation, skills and trade must be upgraded and national governments will need to be far more efficient than they are nowadays.

After Skopje, Prishtina, Podgorica, Sarajevo, Zagreb, and Belgrade the concluding workshop took place in Tirana on 1 October 2013.

The events have being organized in cooperation with respective ministries in Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, Kosovo* and Serbia.

Documents:

• SEE 2020 strategy, draft 1
• Media advisory
• Pressrelease

Presentations:

• SEE 2020 strategy presentation by Sanjin Arifagic, SEE 2020 Coordinator and Senior RCC Expert on Economic and Social Development
• Presentation by Mladen Dragasevic, Head of RCC Building Human Capital and Cross Cutting Issues Unit
• Presentation by Nand Shani, RCC Expert on Economic and Social Development
• Presentation by Suzana Ivanovic, Senior RCC Expert on Justice and Home Affairs
• Presentation by Svetlana Gligorovska, RCC Expert on Infrastructure

Multimedia gallery:

• Videos: RCC staff featuring South East Europe (SEE) 2020 strategy
• Photos
• Videos

Media on SEE 2020 strategy:

• Article by Croatian daily, Jutarnji list, featuring RCC's SEE 2020 strategy
• Interview by Sanjin Arifagic, RCC’s SEE 2020 Coordinator and Senior RCC Expert on Economic and Social Development, to Al Jazeera Balkans
• Interview by Svetlana Gligorovska, RCC Expert on Infrastructure, to Skopje daily Utrinski vesnik

*This designation is without prejudice to positions on status, and is in line with UNSCR 1244 and the ICJ Opinion on the Kosovo declaration of independence