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In the framework of the EU-funded project “Improving Cooperation in SEE by Actions for Strengthening the RCC” on 10 February 2014 the CEI organised in Ljubljana - in its capacity as lead partner - a joint meeting of Ombudsman Offices of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Kosovo*, Macedonia, Montenegro, Serbia, Slovenia and Turkey.
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The 2nd Steering Committee Meeting of the DESIGN-MTS Project was held on 13 December in Brussels at the premises of CSR Europe, Project Partner. The partnership consortium discussed the ongoing activities and the results achieved so far, i.e. the Existing Analysis Report and the European Best Practices Report. Special focus was given to the elaboration of the draft sector-wide joint set of commitments as well as to the forthcoming operational activities.

Within the EU-funded project entitled “Improving Cooperation in SEE by Actions for Strengthening the RCC” a Regional Sector Stakeholders’ Conference on Creative Industry was organised by the CEI in Sarajevo on 29 January, 2014.  

More than fifty participants from South-eastern Europe attended the gathering to debate the role of design in the Balkan region, as an advantage for innovation in many fields, from spatial planning to cultural communication and marketing of manufacturers’ outputs.

Danube-INCO.NET - whose implementation phase will cover the three-year period until December 2016 - is a Coordination and Support Action (CSA) aimed at strengthening transnational cooperation in the field of Research and Innovation (R&I) among the countries targeted by the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR).

Funded by the Seventh Framework Programme for Research and Technological Development (INCO-2013), the project was officially launched at a Kick-Off Meeting held in Vienna on 3-4 February 2014.

Around fifty participants from Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Macedonia and Montenegro gathered in Belgrade on 28 January for the "Regional Sector Stakeholders’ Conference on Advanced Biofuels and Rural Innovation", organised by the CEI  in the framework of the project “Improving Cooperation in SEE by Actions for Strengthening the RCC” financed by the EU IPA Programme.

The conference, hosted at the Belgrade Chamber of Commerce, provided new opportunities for networking and connecting perspectives.
 
On 24 January 2014 in Vienna, the Austrian CEI Presidency 2014 organised a joint meeting with the CEI Committee of National Coordinators (CNC), who had met the day before for their first gathering under this year’s Presidency, and representatives of various regional, international organisations and international financial institutions. EU Commissioner for Regional Policy, Johannes Hahn, also took part in the meeting.

The multimedia exhibition of the ADRIA A Project was opened on 20 January, 2014 at the city hall of Trieste. A touch-screen installation -  illustrating a proposal for a cross-border light rail transport service  -  gives visitors the chance to see the lines, stops and pathways meant to link ports, airports, train stations and cities from Ferrara in Italy to Ljubljana in Slovenia through a single metropolitan transport network. A video on ADRIA A and information on its activities are also available.

A new three-year agreement between the Austrian Development Agency (ADA) and the CEI-ES was signed for the Know-how Exchange Programme (KEP) AUSTRIA on the occasion of the CNC Meeting in Vienna on 23 January 2014.
 
The first meeting of the Committee of National Coordinators (CNC) under the Austrian CEI Presidency 2014 took place in Vienna on 23 January.

Austria presented its priorities and programme of events during 2014, in particular the high-level events such as the Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs (MFA Meeting), the Meeting of the Heads of Government (CEI Summit), the Meeting of the Political Directors of the Ministries of Foreign Affairs of CEI Member States (PoD Meeting) and the meetings of the Committee of National Coordinators.

The young Hungarian director Eszter Haidú is the winner of the CEI Prize (3.000 EUR) assigned in the framework of the 25th Trieste Film Festival. Her documentary “Judgment in Hungary”, presented at the Festival as Italian premiere, is about the trial of a group of Hungarian rightwing extremists who in 2008 and 2009 committed a series of attacks on random members of the Roma community. Six people were killed, including a five-year-old, and another five were injured. The film is a classical courtroom-drama taking place in a small and claustrophobic court room in Budapest.
On 10 January, 2014, Sen. Stefania Giannini - newly elected Head of the Italian Parliamentary Delegation to the CEI Parliamentary Assembly - visited the CEI headquarters to start up a new active phase of the Parliamentary Dimension of the Organisation.

On 12 December 2013, the new CEI Plan of Action (PoA) was formally approved by the CEI Heads of Government. The document, in force as of 1 January 2014, provides the CEI with a focused and project-oriented roadmap for the tri-annual period 2014-2016.

Elaborated by the CEI Member States, in cooperation with the CEI Secretariat and the CEI Networks of Focal Points, the CEI PoA is conceived as a flexible and dynamic tool able to quickly adapt to the evolving European landscape.
The last meeting of the Committee of National Coordinators (CNC) under the Hungarian CEI Presidency 2013 was held in Budapest on 16 December 2013. On that occasion, the participants took stock of the numerous activities and events, which organised both by the Presidency and the CEI Secretariat throughout the year.
The Central European Research Infrastructure Consortium  (C-ERIC) - a Project led by Synchrotron aimed at facilitating access of Scientific Communities of CEI Member States to the Synchrotron Radiation Laboratories (Elettra) and to the Free Electron Laser Laboratories (Fermi) - will be based in Trieste.

The 6th Steering Committee meeting of the project “Improving cooperation in South East Europe by actions for strengthening of the RCC” (SRC SEE) was held in Brussels on 2 December, 2013.
The 5th meeting of the project “Rail Hub Cities for South East Europe” (Rail4SEE), held in Ljubljana on 4 December, 2013, was organised by the Regional Development Agency of Ljubljana.

The Lead Partner and Work Package leaders presented the overall  status of activities, project criticalities, the upcoming semester plans and finally the in-depth analysis and planning of outputs to be produced within the project’s final activity year.
 
This year’s Human Resources Development Forum held in Prague on 22 November, 2013 gathered experts from Ministries of Education, universities and/or other specific organisations from Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Italy, Macedonia, Montenegro, Moldova, Romania, Serbia, Slovankia and Ukraine.

The Steering Committee Meeting and the Innovation Fair of the project WIDER (“Green growing of SMEs: Innovation and development in the energy sector in MED area”) took place in Barcelona (Spain) on 18-20 November 2013, on the premises of ACCIÓ (project partner). Ten project partners gathered to discuss the ongoing and planned activities of the project including the first WIDER Innovation Fair.
 
The Ministerial Conference of the ACROSSEE project (Accessibility improved at border crossings for the integration of South East Europe), entitled “Institutional coordination for overcoming the crisis: investments and horizontal measures to increase the development of the SEE region”, was organised on 12 November 2013 by the Central European Initiative, in cooperation with the Friuli Venezia Giulia Region.

On 12 November, 2013 the Transport Ministerial Conference in Trieste was organised within the framework of the EU-funded project ATTAC (Attractive Urban Public Transport for Accessible Cities) by the Central European Initiative in cooperation with Miskolc Holding, the project lead partner.

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