The Central European Initiative (CEI) is composed of 18 Member States: Albania, Austria, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine. They embrace a territory of 2.4 million square kilometres and a population of nearly 260 million. As of 1st January 2007, the CEI has 9 EU and 9 non-EU Member Countries (the newly enlarged EU region is marked in yellow).
The CEI was established in 1989 as an intergovernmental forum for political, economic and cultural co-operation among its Member States. Its main aim was to help transition countries in Central Europe come closer to the EU. In the second half of 1990's, the extension of its membership to South-eastern and Eastern Europe refocused its priorities on countries in special need.
One of CEI's objectives is to bring the countries of Central and Eastern Europe closer together and assist them in their preparation process for EU membership.
2007-2009 outlines the organisation's current intentions. Although the CEI is not a major donor organisation, it disposes of several funds which are used to promote projects in its various sectors of activity. The CEI cooperates with other international organisations and institutions such as the OECD, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, the EBRD, the World Bank, the UNECE as well as with other regional actors, i.e. the Adriatic Ionian Initiative, BSEC, the Danube Co-operation Process, the Stability Pact, the SECI and the SEECP. Regular contacts have been established with the European Union.
With the last EU enlargements, the CEI's interest shifted towards the 9 Member States staying outside the EU. Indeed, a new CEI programme is to facilitate and co-finance the transfer of know-how on "fresh" transition and negotiation experience.
Today, the European scene shows a great variety of multilateral regional co-operations which have particularly emerged in the second half of 1990's, after the end of the Balkan wars. At the end of 1980's when the fall of the Berlin wall marked the starting point of profound changes in Europe, the CEI was the first regional co-operation forum on the political map of Central and South Eastern and Eastern Europe It has thus the longest tradition and it covers the largest area.
The origin of the CEI lies in the agreement signed in Budapest on 11 November 1989 (only few days after the dramatic events in Berlin) by Italy, Austria, Hungary and Yugoslavia, establishing a platform for mutual political, economic, scientific and cultural co-operation called Quadragonal Co-operation. In May 1990 with the admission of Czechoslovakia, it became the Pentagonal Initiative, and in 1991, following the adhesion of Poland, it was renamed the Hexagonal Initiative. Following the dissolution of former Yugoslavia, the Vienna Summit in July 1992 admitted the Republics of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia, and approved the renaming of the grouping as Central European Initiative. With the dissolution of Czechoslovakia in 1993, both its former parts, the Czech Republic and the Slovak Republic, were admitted to the CEI. At the Budapest Summit in 1993 a proposal for the admission of Macedonia (tenth member of the Initiative) was approved. In 1993 the Secretariat for CEI Projects started operating at the EBRD in London.
The Trieste Summit held in 1994 welcomed the first meeting of the CEI "Association Council" with the participation of Belarus, Bulgaria, Ukraine and Romania, also extended to Albania on the occasion of the MFA meeting in Turin in November 1994. This meeting also adopted the "CEI Instrument for the Protection of Minority Rights". The Warsaw Summit in 1995 decided to accept the candidature of the associated states for obtaining full membership within the CEI. The same meeting adopted the "CEI Guidelines for Activities and Rules of Procedure (amended by the Budapest Summit in 2000) and decided to establish a CEI Centre for Information and Documentation (CID) in Trieste, two years later renamed CEI-Executive Secretariat (CEI-ES).
The Graz Summit in 1996 accepted Moldova's request for admission, which then became the sixteenth CEI member country.
By adopting the Sarajevo Declaration and and the Plan of Action 1998-1999, the CEI Summit 1997 in the capital city of Bosnia and Herzegovina launched a new CEI strategy of cohesion and solidarity aimed at supporting the efforts of the transition countries to come closer to the European structures and bridging the gap between and among the most and the least developed Member States. In 1998 the first edition of the CEI Summit Economic Forum took place in Zagreb. On the occasion of the CEI Summit in Prague in 1999 a solemn commemoration of the CEI's 10th anniversary was held in the Prague Castle. In November 2000, the CEI membership increased to seventeen members when the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (afterwards called Serbia and Montenegro) joined the CEI on the occasion of the Budapest Summit meeting. After their separation in June 2006 Montenegro became the 18th Member State while Serbia continued the membership of the former Serbia and Montenegro.
The meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs held in Milan in June 2001 decided to establish the CEI Co-operation Fund on the basis of annual contributions from all Member States destined to facilitate the implementation of CEI programmes and projects.
The CEI Summit meeting in Trieste in November 2001 launched the idea of establishing the CEI University Network currently developed between the CEI-ES and the University of Trieste. Among the institutional reforms introduced in 2002, the amended CEI Guidelines and Rules of Procedure, adopted by the Heads of Government at the Summit in Skopje in November 2002, deserve mentioning. These guidelines have strengthened the role both of the CEI Parliamentary Dimension and the Business Dimension and aim to help streamline future CEI activities.
At the Summit meeting in Warsaw in 2003, in Portorose (Slovenia) in 2004 and in Piestany (Slovakia) in 2005, the Heads of Government reviewed the situation in the region and expressed their support for a continuing EU enlargement process.
At the last Summit meeting in Tirana in 2006 this general position was reconfirmed: the EU perspective has proven to be a driving force for the reform process and they welcomed the progress made towards European Integration reflected in the signing of accession treaties, on-going accession talks and the granting of candidate status or conclusion of Stabilisation and Association Agreements. They emphasized that the CEI, given the EU enlargement with the accession of Bulgaria and Romania at the beginning of 2007, was in a strategic position of linking its EU and non-EU Member States in a concerted effort focused on closer cooperation and know-how transfer.
The organisation operates through various structures: the annual meeting of the CEI Heads of Government (CEI Summit) - held parallel to the CEI Summit Economic Forum (SEF), the annual Meeting of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs, Ministers of Economic Sectors and other ministerial or sectorial events, monthly meetings of the Committee of National Co-ordinators, meetings and other activities of CEI Working Groups covering various areas of economic, human and institutional development and co-financing of numerous other events (conferences, workshops, training courses etc.). The CEI Parliamentary Dimension and the Central European Chambers of Commerce Initiative (CECCI) i.e. the CEI Business Dimension offer parliamentary and business support respectively for CEI objectives.
The annual CEI Summit, gathering the Prime Ministers from the 18 CEI Member States decides on the political and economic orientation for CEI co-operation and gives visibility to the organisation. Decisions on organisational matters are taken at the MFA Meetings whereas the CNC is the key body responsible for the management of CEI co-operation as well as for the implementation of CEI programmes and projects. Currently, the CEI has 18 Working Groups and Task Forces, composed of representatives/experts from all member countries. Their main task is to develop activities for the benefit of the Member States. In order to increase their efficiency, efforts are being made to take up work in sub-groups, i.e. small Task Forces keeping an issue under review and developing it further.
The above-mentioned activities are supported by the CEI Executive Secretariat and the Secretariat for CEI Projects. The former established in 1996 is based in Trieste and operates with the legal status of an international organisation, the latter has been operative at the EBRD in London since 1991 and holds offices both in Trieste and London. Both Secretariats function as organisational centres of the Initiative. They prepare the documentation needed for decisions taken by Prime and Foreign Ministers, the CNC and the Working Groups, and collect, evaluate and follow-up projects co-financed through the CEI funds. The Secretariat for CEI Projects is the main organiser of the Summit Economic Forum.
Financial support for CEI activities is provided through the CEI Trust Fund at the EBRD, contributed entirely by Italy. Technical cooperation is offered in the form of grant-type assistance in support of specific components of a project (i.e. management training, feasibility study or pre-loan audits). It is considered an invaluable channel to mobilise investment capital and expertise in the countries of operation. Financing is provided for Technical Cooperation (TC) assignments alongside EBRD investments and for development programmes in central-eastern and south-eastern Europe. Priority sectors for intervention are: transport (in particular the development of corridors in the region, road and railway transport, urban transport development), infrastructure (municipalities, urban regeneration, real estate), finance (provision of financial products, support to SMEs) and agriculture (development of agri-businesses, support to wholesale markets and micro-finance). According to a recent EBRD analysis, TCs supported by the CEI Trust Fund since 1991 with approximately 16.5 million EUR (committed), have resulted in over 415 million EUR of EBRD investments for a total project size (i.e. donors, EBRD as well as other IFIs) of over 1.7 billion.
In 2002, the CEI Co-operation Fund, consisting of contributions from all Member States, was established. By the end of 2006, almost 300 projects (seminars, workshops, training courses, conferences etc.) were co-financed, for an overall amount of 3,3 Mil ¤ , through this Fund in various fields and in various member countries.
Among the most recent CEI activities, the establishment of the CEI University Network and the CEI Science and Technology Network deserve mentioning.
In addition, the establishment of the Corridor V Secretariat on the premises of the CEI Executive Secretariat in Trieste was decided in January 2004. The Secretariat - the staff curently consists of 4 members - became operative in October 2004 with the task of accelerating the development of the Corridor. The CEI-ES is providing the logistic and adminstrative support for the structure.
CEI provides students in the MIREES program with 3 scholarships amounting to € 7,000.00 covering tuition fees in full for the first and second year of attendance and 1 scholarship amounting to € 3,000.00 covering tuition fees for the first year of attendance.
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