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”.
The meeting was chaired by Mr. Dimitrios Droutsas, Greek Minister of Foreign Affairs with his Deputy Minister Mr. Spyridon Kouvelis.
In the working session of the meeting, the Ministers exchanged views on issues of common concern to the region.
The Ministers also adopted the Joint Declaration on Combating Climate Change in the wider Black Sea area: this Declaration will be submitted to the United Nations Climate Change Conference which will take place in December 2010, in Cancun, Mexico, constituting a contribution of BSEC to the UN Framework Convention on Climate Change negotiations.
All the representatives of the BSEC Member States, as well as Related Bodies, BSEC Observers, Sectoral Dialogue Partners participated in and delivered statements at the meeting.
Among these, Mr Giorgio Rosso Cicogna, Alternate Secretary General, intervened on behalf of the Central European Initiative, underlining the potential of cooperation existing between the two Regional Organisations, in view of the fact that six out of twelve BSEC member countries are also CEI Members States.
In this context, Mr. Rosso Cicogna confirmed that a Protocol of Cooperation has been finalised and will be signed in Istanbul at BSEC Headquarters in the forthcoming weeks.