The Regional Cooperation Council (RCC) has prepared a South East Europe 2020 strategy (SEE 2020) to help governments improve economies and create new jobs, participants of the First meeting of the Governing Board of the RCC SEE 2020 Strategy in Bucharest have said.
This strategy was drawn up to deal with weak economic growth and unemployment, the biggest problem in the region, the RCC said on Thursday.
RCC Secretary General Goran Svilanovic said a real balance between ambition and reality was vital to managing the problem successfully.
Deputy Head of Unit for Regional Cooperation and Programmes in the European Commission’s Directorate General for Enlargement Kjartan Bjornsson described the SEE 2020 strategy as the right approach at the right place and the right time.
Presenting the SEE 2020 Baseline Report, mechanism that will be used for tracking progress in the strategy’s implementation, SEE 2020 Coordinator Sanjin Arifagic said that the mechanism would enable all stakeholders, governments and citizens of the region have a full and clear insight into the way the strategy impacted the whole region.
SEE 2020 is a joint strategy for economic development in seven SEE countries, including Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Montenegro, Serbia and Macedonia.
The initiative to draw up the strategy was launched by the SEE governments and supported by the RCC earlier in 2014.
Through implementation of a total of 86 strategic measures, the SEE countries plan to remove trade barriers, jointly promote the region to foreign investors, finance joint research programs, develop a common energy and transportation infrastructure, enhance mobility of workers in the entire Balkans and improve government services and business climates.
Growth that should be stimulated by the measures could open millions of jobs and bring the entire region closer to EU accession by 2020.
Activities are implemented and numerous mechanisms used on both state and regional levels to assist governments in implementing the strategy successfully.
One of the instruments that will be available for SEE 2020 implementation is the IPA II, an EU instrument for pre-accession assistance, which will make EUR 11.7 billion available to the SEE countries over the next seven years.
The RCC promotes mutual cooperation and European and Euro-Atlantic Integration in South East Europe with the aim of boosting regional development.
The RCC has its headquarters in Sarajevo, and 46 members, including countries, international organizations and financial institutions.
Source SerbGov
