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The Government of the Republic of Serbia

In the service of citizens

Two-day meeting on transnational EU CADSES programme begins

Belgrade, 5 September 2005

A two-day conference on the transnational EU programme CADSES INTERREG III B, organised by the Serbian Ministry of International Economic Relations, began today in Belgrade. This programme covers the Central, Adriatic, Danubian and South-Eastern European Space and is designed to enable non-EU countries to equally participate in various projects.

Two-day meeting on transnational EU CADSES programme begins

Author: Tanjug

The aim of the CADSES programme is to strengthen territorial and economic integration within the area covered by the programme in four priority projects, for which the candidates can submit projects - spatial, urban and rural development and immigration; transport systems and access to the information society; landscape, natural and cultural heritage; and environmental protection, natural resources management and ecological risk prevention.

Deputy Minister of International Economic Relations Vlatko Sekulovic said that it is a great success that this event is being held for the first time in Belgrade and voiced hope that it will enable the many participants from Serbia-Montenegro inclusion in the realisation of this programme.

Sekulovic said that the number of projects for this kind of European assistance has increased sevenfold in the period between 2000 and 2005, and recalled that twenty projects have been adopted so far.

At the previous three meetings, Serbia proposed 22 projects of transnational regional cooperation, Sekulovic said and added that the EU supported them with €15 million in the period between 2004 and 2005 alone.

Sekulovic voiced hope that after this meeting, which gathers around 300 mostly foreign experts, even more projects will be adopted, based mostly on strengthening regional cooperation.

Without strong regional cooperation, there can be no integration into the European Union, Sekulovic said. It is expected that after the cooperation that has been established on the implementation of these projects with Hungary, Romania and Bulgaria, the next partners will be Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia.

The Deputy Minister said that one of the elements of these programmes is the equality of gender and added that participation of women in a large way is a sign that Serbia is changing and that it is ready to enter the EU.

The future president of the joint legislative and monitoring committee, Anastasios Aleksandridis, said that 15 new projects are already being examined and that another 37 have been submitted, and announced that Greece will be the chair of the programme in the upcoming period.

President of the European Commission for Regional Development Moray Gilland explained that CADSES includes 13 various programmes in 18 countries, which must propose and design projects of strategic cooperation on their own.

Programme Representative Fabio Croccolo said that one of the projects is protection of the environment from Danube river flooding. He added that there is a need for cooperation in the field of transport, which is of unequal quality on the territory of EU.