News

The XVIII Adriatic and Ionian Council (AIC) closing the AII Chairmanship of Bosnia and Herzegovina was held last 13 May in Brussels at the premises of the Baden Wuttemberg State. The venue was chosen to signal the possible synergies among the EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region (EUSAIR) and the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR). After the meeting, the Heads of Delegations of the two strategies met for a joint lunch at the presence of High level representatives of the European Commission.

The XVIII Adriatic and Ionian Council was chaired by the Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Mr. Josip Brkić.

The Heads of Delegations discussed about the possible evolution from AIC to a joint AIC/EUSAIR Ministerial meeting without losing the intergovernmental character of the AII, but coordinating the political ownership of the two exercises. They decided to "further enhance the interlinks between the AI Council and the EUSAIR, fully recognizing AII's role of intergovernmental anchorage of the EUSAIR". Such coordination is also evident from the Council's endorsement of the overhaul of AII Round Tables that transformed them into an auxiliary body at disposal of EUSAIR Thematic Steering Groups.

The AIC ended with Mr. Brkić handing over the AII Chairmanship to Croatia starting from June 2015. Mr. Hrvoje Marusić, on behalf of Croatia informed the audience about the significance that his Government attach to the AII and the EUSAIR and briefly described the priorities of its program for the year of Chairmanship.

The Brussels Declaration and the overhauled Rules of Procedure of the AII Round Tables are enclosed

The European Commission has published a Study on Parliamentary Cooperation.

The Study consists of two documents:

• Mapping of international parliamentary institutions in the Western Balkans and South East Europe;

• Overview of parliamentary capcity building with EU Member States and Potential Member States.

Both documents have been published on these links:

http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/enlargement_process/2015-02-17-mapping_and_analysis_report.pdf

(Chapter 4.3.8 is dedicated to the Parliamentary Dimension of the Adriatic and Ionian Initiative)

http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/pdf/enlargement_process/2015-02-17-capacity-building-report.pdf

The "XIII Conference of the Speakers of the Adriatic and Ionian Initiative" took place last April 23 in Neum (Bosnia and Herzegovina).

The Conference was chaired by the Speakers of the two Chambers of the Parliament of BiH, Mr. Šefik Džaferović for the House of Representatives and Mr. Bariša Čolak for the House of People.

All participants expressed great satisfaction for the improvements in regional cooperation in the area particularly thanks to the newly endorsed "EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region" and expressed their wish to actively contribute to its implementation phase. The participants stressed the leading role governments had in such a process and expressed the belief that through political and legislative initiative, Parliaments could foster concrete developments in the Strategy.

The topic covered by the Conference was: "Connecting the Region in order to strengthen sustainable tourism", which is commonly understood as one of the most important economic asset of the region, as well as the engagement of parliaments in achieving the aims of the Adriatic and Ionian Initiative and the EUSAIR.

Concluding, the heads of AII Parliaments decided to "establish a constant and more efficient flow of communication with the AII Chairmanship in Office, by appointing in the coming months a High Official from each National Parliament, in charge of liaising with the national Senior Official and the AII Permanent Secretariat on intergovernmental and EUSAIR issues".

The Joint Statement of the Conference and a list of the Head of Delegations is enclosed.

The AII ad hoc Round Table on Flood Relief was held in Sarajevo on March 26.

After the disastrous floods of May 2014 that hit Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia, the question of how to prevent natural disasters and how to act in such cases is a priority of regional cooperation.

Besides exchanging information and bringing the example of the best practices of transnational cooperation during the floods in BiH, the ad hoc Round Table was the occasion to discuss on how the recently approved EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region could contribute to simplify and make more efficient cooperation in this field.

The ad hoc Round Table was chaired by a representative of the Ministry of Security of BiH and attended by representatives of AII Participating Countries, local authorities and the AII Permanent Secretariat