SEESAC Invited to Present at the RCC Board Meeting
As a regional initiative established under the Stability Pact (predecessor of the Regional Cooperation Council), SEESAC was invited by the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) to attend the RCC’s 23rd Board Meeting in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina and present its work, results, ongoing activities and plans for the forthcoming period. This was the first time that any regional initiative was invited to present its work at the Board Meeting.
Ms. Bojana Balon presented the achievements and future plans of both the Small Arms Control and the Gender in Security Sector areas of SEESAC’s work. Her presentation was particularly focused on a detailed overview of the new “EU Support of SEESAC Disarmament and Arms Control Activities in South East Europe (EUSAC)” project, funded through the EU Council Decision 2013/730/CFSP.
On this occasion, SEESAC received praise from the RCC Secretary General, Goran Svilanović, as well as the participating countries. In particular, the RCC SG stressed SEESAC's important contribution to regional cooperation, security and building trust in the region. Representatives of Germany, Slovenia, Croatia and Serbia commended the presentation and thanked SEESAC for its work and great results achieved.
On the RCC Board:
The RCC Board provides operational guidance and supervision of the organization in between the Annual Meetings. The Board accepts the Annual Report of the Secretary General and adopts the Strategy and Work Programme, reviews progress in the course of the year and provides proposals and initiatives with the view of further development of regional cooperation. The Board consists of those RCC participants contributing to the budget of the RCC Secretariat as well as the European Union, represented by a representative of the High Representative of the Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy and a representative of the European Commission.
The RCC Board meets three times a year and is chaired by the Secretary General. RCC Board meetings are convened and prepared by the Secretary General in coordination with the SEECP CiO. The RCC Board meets at the level of RCC National Coordinators, which are senior civil officials in each RCC participant responsible for coordination of RCC relevant issues within their respective national administration.
At the 23rd Meeting the RCC Secretary General presented a report on activities of the organization’s Secretariat in the period January-April 2014, primarily in relation to the implementation of the RCC Strategy and Work Programme 2014-2016 and South East Europe (SEE) 2020 Strategy, as well as information on the most important future activities of the RCC Secretariat.