The Republic of Bulgaria

Ministry of Foreign Affairs

THE CENTRAL EUROPEAN INITIATIVE (CEI)

General information on the CEI
Member-states – Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Italy, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, the Ukraine, Hungary, Croatia, Montenegro and the Czech Republic.
Territory – 2.4 million sq. km.
Population – 250 million
Director General – Pietro Ago (1 January 2008)
Official language – English.

Background
The Central European Initiative includes 18 member-states -  Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Italy, Macedonia, Moldova, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, Slovenia, Serbia, the Ukraine, Hungary, Croatia, Montenegro and the Czech Republic. With this membership the CEI covers a territory of 2.4 million square  kilometres and has a population of 250 million. The CEI is the first regional forum on the political map of Central, Eastern and South-Eastern Europe; it has the longest history and the largest territory among all regional organisations, processes and initiatives.

The agreement signed on 11 November 1989 in Budapest (just two days after the fall of the Berlin wall) between Austria, Italy, Hungary and Yugoslavia is considered the start of the CEI. It created a platform for mutual cooperation in the field of politics, the economy, science and culture, the so called Quadragonale. In May 1990 Czechoslovakia also joined (Pentagonale) and in 1991 Poland too (Hexagonale). After the disintegration of former Yugoslavia the majority of the former constituent republics (Slovenia, Croatia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, with the exception of Macedonia and the Serbia-Montenegro federation) were admitted and in 1992 the Initiative was renamed Central European Initiative. In this period the CEI Trust Fund at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) and the Secretariat for CEI Projects in London were established. After the separation of Czechoslovakia the Czech Republic and Slovakia became members in 1993. On 1 June 1996 Albania, Bulgaria, Belarus, Romania and the Ukraine became full members of the Initiative. On 9 November 1996 Macedonia and Moldova were admitted with which the number of the member-states became 16. In 1998 a CEI Economic Forum was held for the first time. In November 2000 the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia was restored as a CEI member. Currently Serbia participates as its successor. After the proclamation of independence by Montenegro it became a CEI member on 1 August 2006 with which the total number of member-states became 18.

One of the historic moments in the CEI development was the accession of new member-countries to the EU in May 2004 with which the number of CEI member-states which were EU members grew from two to seven, and from 1 January 2007, after the accession of Bulgaria and Romania, they became nine. Currently the Initiative includes EU Member States-, SEE countries, which are negotiating accession, as well as East European countries which have no status of EU candidate-countries but are members of the European Neighbourhood Policy.

The CEI is an intergovernmental regional forum for cooperation without a legal status of an international organisation except in Italy.

The CEI priority objectives are the development of cooperation among the countries of Central, South-Eastern and Eastern Europe; support for the European integration and preparation of the candidate countries for EU accession. The CEI promotes and supports the processes of transition in the member-countries through developing regional cooperation on a flexible and pragmatic basis on issues of mutual interest. It creates a climate of mutual understanding conducive to discussing, planning, exploring, financing and implementing national projects and multilateral programmes which are adopted with consensus.

Organisation
The CEI carries out its work through various structures:
Government Dimension - consisting of: annual summits of Heads of Government, annual meetings of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, meetings of the Ministers of Economy and of other sectors (on a motion of the CEI Presidency during the respective year), High Level Economic Forum (HLEF), Youth Forum, regular meetings of the CEI National Coordinators Committee, different conferences and seminars. Since 2008 the working groups have been transformed into coordination units which shall work on specific projects and shall not hold annual meetings.

Parliamentary Dimension - traditionally holding two meetings per annum – of the parliamentary committees and of the Parliamentary Assembly.

Business dimension, which holds a Conference of the Central European Chambers of Commerce and assists the organization of the HLEF.

Every year the member-countries assume the CEI Presidency on a rotational basis for one calendar year. Bulgaria was CEI President-in-Office in 2007. In 2008 the Presidency was taken over by Moldova.

The CEI governing body is the Annual Summit of the Heads of Government of the CEI member-states.
At the CEI member-countries Heads of Government summit on 27 November 2007 decisions on repositioning were adopted. The main issues in the decisions were related to improving the financial situation of the Initiative, specifying the mandate, optimising the CEI operational activities and working structures, downsizing and modifying future cooperation areas in line with new realities and recommendations on improving political dialogue and relations with the EU and the other regional partners. A Concluding Document was also adopted.

A meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs is held annually, usually in May, at which decisions are adopted on organizational matters of the cooperation within the CEI. The last foreign ministers’ meeting was held in Sofia on 18 May at the Boyana residence. The meeting adopted decisions on the CEI Presidency in 2008 and beyond; positions on Belarus and the Cooperation Fund and elected two directors-general on a rotational basis for the period 2008-2010.

A meeting of political directors of the ministries of foreign affairs is held traditionally in October in Rome, Italy.

The activity of the CEI on an expert level is coordinated by the Committee of National Coordinators (CNC) – senior officials at the respective ministries of foreign affairs, who meet regularly. The CNC is responsible for the management of the specific expert cooperation, adopts decisions on the implementation of the respective programmes and projects and prepares the documents to be adopted at the Foreign Ministers and Heads of Government meetings.
A CEI university network was established at the Warsaw summit in 2003. Every member-state has a coordinating university which is a member of the CEI University Network Executive Committee. On behalf of Bulgaria this function is performed by the National and World Economy University in Sofia.

The work of the different structures is assisted by an Executive Secretariat. It was established in 1996 in the city of Trieste, Italy, as a CEI Information and Documentation Centre. Since November 1997 on Italy's proposal it was renamed CEI Executive Secretariat which was a first step towards institutionalising the CEI. Ambassador Harold Kreid (Austria) was the CEI Director General for two three-year mandates until the end of 2007. The first Deputy-Director General was from Italy. From 1998 until 2005 the second CEI Deputy-Director General was from Slovenia, and at the beginning of 2006 Mikola Melenevski (the Ukraine) was elected in his place. Two new Directors General were elected at the meeting in Sofia on 18 May 2007 – Ambassador Pietro Ago from Italy for 2008 and 2009 and Ambassador Gerhard Pfanzelter (Austria) for 2010. It was decided at the meeting also that in the first half of 2008 Ambassador Kreid would remain in the Secretariat as an alternative Director General and in the second half of 2008 and in 2009 this post would be assumed by Pfanzelter before he became Director General in 2010.

The seat of the CEI Project Secretariat is in London. It was established in 1991 to manage the EBRD Trust Fund. Head of the Secretariat from May 2005 was Guido Paolucci (Italy). In 2006 Italy announced that it would close down the Trust Fund but pursuant to the adoption of decisions on the repositioning of the CEI at the end of 2007 with a Parliamentary decision it prolonged its financing for a further three years (2008-2010) with EUR 6 million – EUR 2 million per each year. The relocation of the Project Secretariat from London to Trieste was specified.
The CEI Project Secretariat is co-organiser, jointly with the President-in-Office, of the Economic Forum. On 20-21 November 2007 the Tenth HLEF was held in Sofia. Within its framework a round table of the Ministers of Economy was also organised. Over 1800 people took part in the Forum – ministers, businessmen, etc. Co-organiser was the Bulgarian Economic Forum.

The Central European Initiative of the Chambers of Commerce (CECCI) includes the national federations of the chambers of commerce and industry of the CEI member-states and is the main mechanism of the CEI economic dimension.

Pursuant to the decisions of the Heads of Government summit in Sofia in 2007 on the CEI repositioning as of 2008 the Working Groups were transformed into Coordination Units representing a network of experts. These Coordination Units would participate not only in the evaluation of projects applying for CEI financing but also in project implementation under the management of the CEI ES, would advise on issues of strategic importance in the respective field, would nominate experts for inclusion in the project implementation groups and participate in them as appropriate, and, last but not least, would propose specific projects and activities. At the same time it was envisaged to preserve the option of establishing ad hoc working groups, should the need arise.

CEI Partners
To its Heads of Government and Foreign Ministers meetings the CEI invites representatives of the OSCE, the UN ECE, the CE, the OECD, the BSECO, the SEECP, the RCC, the Baltic Council, etc.
Ten organisations, processes and initiatives were invited to the CEI summit on 27 November 2007.

In December 2007 a seminar on coordinating regional cooperation with the other organisations, processes and initiatives was held in Bansko organised by the Bulgarian SEECP President-in Office

Contacts
CEI - Executive Secretariat
Italy, Trieste, Via Genova 9
phone +39 040 7786777
fax +39 040 360640
email : cei-es@cei-es.org. This e-mail is protected from spy bots. State script support is required to access it.
web : http://www.ceinet.org

Bulgaria's participation in the CEI
Bulgaria established relations with the Central European Initiative in 1990. In 1992 it obtained observer status, in 1994 – associate member status and on 1 July 1996 it became a full member.
Pursuant to the rotation principle Bulgaria assumed the CEI Presidency-in Office from January to December 2007. On 26 February 2007 the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Bulgaria adopted a Decree on approving Priorities of the Bulgarian Presidency-in-Office of the Central European Initiative in 2007 and on Their Organisational Provision. It was published in the State Gazette No. 20 on 6 March 2007. Three main aspects of the Presidency-in-Office were outlined in the Priorities: improving and strategic orientation of CEI activities to meet successfully the new challenges after the fifth EU enlargement; cooperation within the CEI in support of the European perspective of the Organisation's member-states on the basis of the experience of the fifth EU enlargement and harmonising the CEI priorities with the other regional organisations.

The obligatory and traditional thus far events that are organised by the presiding countries were held during the Bulgarian Presidency-in-Office: Foreign Ministers meeting; summit of the Heads of Government; High Level Economic Forum (HLEF) accompanied by a round table of the Ministers of Economy and a Youth Forum.

Events specific for Bulgaria also took place, such as meeting of the heads of the tourist administrations of the CEI member-states, meeting of the Ministers of Transport and meeting of the Ministers of Agriculture.
At the summit in Sofia of the CEI member-states Heads of Government on 27 November 2007 decisions on repositioning were adopted.

In October 2005 a permanent delegation of the National Assembly to the CEI Parliamentary Dimension was elected with a decision of the National Assembly consisting of five members. Mr Boiko Boev of the Simeon II National Movement parliamentary group was elected chairman. On 20 November 2007 a meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the CEI Parliamentary Dimension took place at the Boyana residence on issues of education and the further development of the Parliamentary Dimension.

A pilot project was approved for Bulgaria by the EBRD Trust Fund amounting to EUR 300 000 aimed at exploring the possibilities to finance the modernisation and reconstruction of the water supply and sewerage systems in Burgas and Plovdiv under which the two municipalities would receive EUR 10 million each. In September 2006 a second Bulgarian project was approved by the Fund for EUR 200 000 on achieving the necessary creditworthiness for a water treatment plant in Ruse. On the basis of this project the EU will subsequently allocate under the ISPA Programme a loan of EUR 39.5 million and the EBRD – of EUR 8 million – a total EUR 47.4 million

The total sum of CEI grants for Bulgarian projects from the Cooperation Fund, which is aimed primarily at organising international conferences, meetings and other fora within the CEI, from November 2004 until the end of 2007 amounted to EUR 362 489, the annual membership fee being EUR 6 600. The last Bulgarian project approved at the beginning of 2008 for EUR 4 500 was for organising an international youth seminar.