News

In preparation of the upcoming Ukrainian Presidency in 2012, Secretary General, Amb. Gerhard Pfanzelter was received in Kiev by Prime Minister Mykola Azarov and by the Minister for Foreign Affairs, Kostyantyn Gryshchenko on 11 November 2011.

This year’s XI CEI Youth Forum held on 2-4 November in Subotica (Serbia) under the Serbian Presidency was organised by the Ministry of Youth and Sport of the Republic of Serbia.

Prime Ministers of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, Romania and Ukraine, Deputy Prime Ministers of Albania and Poland, Ministers of Economy of Bulgaria, the Czech Republic and Macedonia and other high-level representatives of Belarus, Croatia, Italy, Slovenia, Austria, Moldova and Slovakia met on 4 November 2011, in Belgrade, on the occasion of the CEI Summit under this year’s Serbian Presidency.

The Central European Initiative (CEI) and the South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) are pleased to announce the winner of the CEI SEEMO Award for Outstanding Merits in Investigative Journalism 2011,  Mr. Włodzmierz Kalicki.

The Office of the Prime Minister in cooperation with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Ministry of Economy and Regional Development of the Republic of Serbia, is organising the annual CEI Summit on 4 November 2011 in Belgrade, Serbia.

For the first time in the CEI’s history the Serbian Presidency organised a meeting of CEI Ministers of Science and Technology, in Trieste on 19 October 2011. Delegations from CEI Member States attended the meeting, including 6 Ministers and 6 Deputy Ministers and other high officials, as well as a representative of the European Commission (Directorate General for Research and Innovation) and other guests.

The Sincrotrone Trieste “Elettra” Laboratory is hosting the opening session. Serbian Minister of Education and Science, Mr. Zarko Obradovic, will chair the meeting. Italy will be represented by the Undersecretary of Education, University and Research, Mr. Giuseppe Pizza.

The Secretary General of the Central European Initiative (CEI), Ambassador Gerhard Pfanzelter, took part in an informal meeting of the Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the CEI, the South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) and the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative (AII) on 23 September 2011.

The SEETAC project (South-East European Transport Axis Cooperation) was recently selected as one of the best transport projects implemented within  a Transnational Cooperation Programme.

The signing ceremony of the convention between the Friuli Venezia Giulia region and Rete Ferroviaria Italiana for the planning of the missing railroad links on the Italian territory was hosted by the CEI on 16 September.

The Central European Initiative (CEI) together with the University of Trieste organized a two-session gathering linked to the ADRIA A project on 22 September at the CEI headquarters.

The final results of this EU funded project on freight management in urban areas (SUGAR) were analysed on the occasion of the 7th SUGAR Consortium Meeting held on 22-23 September in Palma de Mallorca.

Forty students and civil society activists from the Central European Initiative region (CEI) and beyond gathered in Faenza on the occasion of the 17th edition of  the CEI International Summer School “Beyond the Enlargement. The Wider Europe and the New Neighbourhood”.

On top of the Agenda of the Meeting of the Committee of CEI National Coordinators (CNC) on 13 September at the CEI Headquarters was the preparation of a number of high-level and expert meetings scheduled by the Serbian Presidency until the end of the year.

A new impact assessment and analysis reveals the success of the Know-How Exchange Programme (KEP) in taking advantage of the transition experience of recently admitted EU members in order to avoid obstacles and speed up processes in the countries that aim at filling similar development gaps.

As of the end of August – less than two months from its opening – the Trieste Biennale which includes the CEI exhibition “Free Port of Art” has registered an extraordinary number of visitors, more than 12000. The majority is from Trieste and the surrounding area. For these visitors this is also a special occasion to visit the Old Harbour (Porto Vecchio) of Trieste, an exceptional location classified as a national monument opened to the public for the first time.

On the occasion of the official Opening of the 26th Vilenica International Literary Festival on 7 September, Secretary General Amb. Pfanzelter presented the CEI Fellowship for Writers in Residence to Ognjen Spahić from Montenegro.

The 5th SUGAR Consortium Meeting, held in Brussels at the POLIS premises aimed at discussing the status of this EU funded project and the results achieved so far.

Held on 3-6 May, the event was opened by a workshop where  the good-practice sites - Emilia Romagna, Paris, London and Barcelona - presented their project findings and shared their experience in the field of sustainable urban freight management and logistics.