UNDP SEESAC attends the RCC’s Ninth Annual Meeting

UNDP SEESAC attended the ninth annual meeting of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) held on 31 May – 1 June 2016, in Pravets, Bulgaria and co-organized with the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office 2015-2016 of the South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP). Bulgarian Minister of Foreign Affairs Daniel Mitov and RCC Secretary General Goran Svilanovic opened the meeting that endorsed the RCC’s new Strategy and Work Programme for 2017-2019 and the Annual Report of the RCC Secretary General featuring the work of the organization in the past year.
 

Bulgarian Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov commended the RCC’s efforts in transforming the understanding of regional cooperation as concrete and target-oriented.
 

“We remain fully committed to supporting our partners from Western Balkans on their path towards the EU membership, which requires the implementation of serious political and economic reforms”, Ms. Mitov said and reiterating political commitment for the successful implementation of the RCC Strategy and Work Programme 2017 – 2019.
 

RCC Secretary General Goran Svilanovic, who co-chaired the meeting, presented the organization’s activities in the past year, as well as plans for the upcoming three-year period.
 

“This interplay of regional themes is at the core of our proposed Strategy and Work Programme for 2017 – 2019. Our vision and activities for these three years would strongly benefit from the commitment and support of all the stakeholders actively engaged in ensuring that the region is better connected, more competitive and increasingly integrated with the EU”, Mr. Svilanovic said.
 

As a joint initiative of the RCC and the UNDP, SEESAC has been working since 2002 on strengthening afety and security through regional cooperation in South East Europe (SEE), and therefore contributing to creating conditions for sustainable development.

In her address, UNDP SEESAC Senior Project Coordinator Ms. Bojana Balon highlighted some of the key results achieved by SEESAC with the support of the European Union (EU). “As with all our initiatives, we look for regional solutions to regional problems, with the belief that we have enough in common to make learning from each other the most efficient way forward”, she told the meeting.