Central European Initiative

Last updated
Central European Initiative
Central European Initiative logo.png
Logo
CEI members.svg
Member states
Headquarters Trieste, Italy
Type Intergovernmental organization
Membership17 member states
Leaders
 Secretary general
Roberto Antonione
Establishment
 Founded
1989

The Central European Initiative (CEI) is a forum of regional cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe, counting 18 member states. It was formed in Budapest in 1989. The body was developed on the basis of earlier experiences with The Alps-Adriatic Working Group. [1] The CEI headquarters have been in Trieste, Italy, since 1996.

Contents

History

The Central European Initiative or CEI, is the largest and oldest forum of regional cooperation in Central, Eastern and South Eastern Europe. It now counts 17 member states, many of whom are not even part of Central Europe: Albania, Belarus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Italy, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia and Ukraine. The origin of the Central European Initiative lies in the creation of the Quadragonale in Budapest on 11 November 1989 whose founding members were Italy, Austria, Hungary and the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (SFRY).

The Initiative aimed at overcoming the division in blocks by re-establishing cooperation links, among countries of different political orientations and economic structures.

At the first Summit in Venice in 1990, Czechoslovakia was admitted and the Initiative was renamed Pentagonale. In 1991, with the admission of Poland it became the Hexagonale.

The organisation was renamed Central European Initiative (CEI) in 1992. On the same occasion, Macedonia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and Slovenia were admitted as member states.

The Czech Republic and Slovakia were admitted to the CEI in 1993 following the dissolution of Czechoslovakia. In 1996 Albania, Belarus, Bulgaria, Moldova, Romania and Ukraine joined the CEI as full-fledged members.

The current membership derives from the adhesion of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (afterwards State Union of Serbia and Montenegro and later on Serbia) in 2000 and of Montenegro in 2006.

Structures

The CEI has a three-pillar system: It cooperates in a governmental dimension, a parliamentary dimension and a business dimension.

It promotes connectivity and diversity through 6 main areas: Good governance, economic growth, media freedom, environmental protection, intercultural cooperation and scientific cooperation/ education & training.

The CEI implements is activities through its cooperative activities, EU-projects, Know-how exchange programme and technical cooperation with the European Bank for Reconstruction and development(EBRD).

Secretary general

Since 2019, Roberto Antonione (Italy) has been secretary general.

CEI Presidencies

YearCountry
1989Hungary
1990Italy
1991SFR Yugoslavia
1992Austria
1993Hungary
1994Italy
1995Poland
1996Austria
1997Bosnia and Herzegovina
1998Croatia
1999Czech Republic
2000Hungary
2001Italy
2002Macedonia
2003Poland
2004Slovenia
2005Slovakia
2006Albania
2007Bulgaria
2008Moldova
2009Romania
2010Montenegro
2011Serbia
2012Ukraine
2013Hungary
2014Austria
2015Macedonia
2016Bosnia and Herzegovina
2017Belarus
2018Croatia
2019Italy
2020Montenegro
2021Montenegro (due to covid related cancellation of most of the 2020 program)

Membership

Founding members:

Joined later:

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Central European Free Trade Agreement</span> International trade agreement

The Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) is an international trade agreement between countries mostly located in Southeastern Europe. Founded by representatives of Poland, Hungary and Czechoslovakia, CEFTA in 2006 expanded to Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and the UNMIK.

Europe, the westernmost portion of Eurasia, is often divided into regions and subregions based on geographical, cultural or historical factors. Since there is no universal agreement on Europe's regional composition, the placement of individual countries may vary based on criteria being used. For instance, the Balkans is a distinct geographical region within Europe, but individual countries may alternatively be grouped into South-eastern Europe or Southern Europe.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southeast Europe</span> Geographic region in Europe

Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe (SEE) is a geographical sub-region of Europe, consisting primarily of the cultural region of the Balkans, as well as adjacent regions and archipelagos. There are overlapping and conflicting definitions of the region, due to political, economic, historical, cultural, and geographical considerations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Southeast European Cooperative Initiative</span>

The Southeast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI) is a multilateral regional initiative that has been initiated by the European Union, the United States of America and the countries of Southeast Europe within the framework of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) as a support to the implementation of the Dayton Accords in December 1996 at the inaugural session at Geneva on the basis of Final Points of Common EU-USA Understanding.

South East Europe Media Organisation (SEEMO) is a regional non-governmental, non-profit network of editors, media executives and leading journalists in Southeast, South, East and Central Europe. The organization aims to create a bridge between international media activities and the media developments in the region. It has headquarters and national committees in several countries. In total 33 member states or territories are included in SEEMO: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Belarus, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Estonia, Georgia, Greece, Hungary, Kazakhstan, Kosovo, Kyrgyzstan, Latvia, Lithuania, Malta, Moldova, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Poland, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Slovakia, Slovenia, Tajikistan, Turkmenistan, Turkey, Ukraine and Uzbekistan

Languages of Yugoslavia are all languages spoken in former Yugoslavia. They are mainly Indo-European languages and dialects, namely dominant South Slavic varieties as well as Albanian, Aromanian, Bulgarian, Czech, German, Italian, Venetian, Balkan Romani, Romanian, Pannonian Rusyn, Slovak and Ukrainian languages. There are also pockets where varieties of non-Indo-European languages, such as those of Hungarian and Turkish, are spoken.

As a member of FIFA and UEFA, the Montenegro national football team has been playing official matches since March 2007. Montenegro plays in the qualifiers for the FIFA World Cup and UEFA European Championship, as well as partaking in the UEFA Nations League. Apart from that, the team participates in friendly matches.

East-Central Europe is the region between German-, Hungarian-, and West Slavic-speaking Europe and the East Slavic countries of Belarus, Russia, and Ukraine. Those lands are described as situated "between two": "between two worlds, between two stages, between two futures".

This article lists all the Bosnia and Herzegovina national football team results between 1995 and 2019.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Romania national football team results (2000–2019)</span>

This is a list of the Romania national football team results from 2000 to 2019:

ATP (formally, the Agreement on the International Carriage of Perishable Foodstuffs and on the Special Equipment to be used for such Carriage (ATP)) is a 1970 United Nations treaty that establishes standards for the international transport of perishable food between the states that ratify the treaty. It has been updated through amendment a number of times and as of 2016 has 50 state parties, most of which are in Europe or Central Asia. It is open to ratification by states that are members of the United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) and states that otherwise participate in UNECE activities. "ATP" is derived from the French name of the treaty: Accord relatif aux transports internationaux de denrées périssables et aux engins spéciaux à utiliser pour ces transports.

This is a list of all Slovakia national football team results against other national teams to the present day.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">2015 European Athletics Team Championships</span>

The sixth European Athletics Team Championships took place on 20 and 21 June 2015.

The 2019 FIBA Basketball World Cupqualification for the FIBA Europe region, began in August 2017 and concluded in February 2019. Contrary to previous years, no teams were automatically placed into the World Cup, so all FIBA Europe nations had to participate in qualification.

The Slovenia national football team represents Slovenia in association football and is controlled by the Football Association of Slovenia, the governing body for football in Slovenia. It competes as a member of the Union of European Football Associations (UEFA), which encompasses the countries of Europe. Slovenia joined UEFA and the International Federation of Association Football (FIFA) in 1992, a year after the country gained independence from the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

This page describes the qualification procedure for FIBA Women's EuroBasket 2021. 14 teams joined the co-hosts France and Spain.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Macedonia national football team results</span>

These are all the matches played by the Macedonia national football team from 1993 to 2018:

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Lithuania national football team results (1990–2019)</span> Lithuania national football team

The Lithuania national football team represents Lithuania in association football and is controlled by the Lithuanian Football Federation (LFF), the governing body of the sport in the country.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Norway national football team results (2000–2019)</span>

This is a list of the Norway national football team results from 2000 to 2019.

The EuroBasket Women 2023 qualification was held from November 2021 to February 2023 to decide the 14 teams to join the co-hosts Israel and Slovenia. It featured 38 teams split in ten groups of three or four teams. The ten group winners and the four best second-ranked teams qualified for the final tournament.

References

  1. Andrew Cottey, ed. (1999). Subregional Cooperation in the New Europe. Palgrave. p. 113. ISBN   978-1-349-27196-2.
  2. "CEI Summit successfully held in Zagreb". Central European Initiative. 2018-05-12. Retrieved 2019-05-28.