The
Central European Initiative or
CEI [1], is a political, economical, cultural and scientific international organisation founded in
1989. It now counts 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.
Since its beginnings, the mandate of the Initiative has been to help transition countries in Central and Eastern Europe in their effort to integrate further with the European Union (EU) and achieve a higher level of socio-economic development. In a post-enlargement context, the CEI has shifted in focus towards those Member States remaining outside the EU. As such, the countries of the Western Balkans (Albania, Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia including Kosovo) and the three CEI Member States part of the European Neighbourhood Policy (Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine) are at present the areas where most of the CEI financial resources and technical expertise will converge.
In 1991 and 1992 the Italian government signed two Agreements with the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD) [2]on the establishment of a CEI Trust Fund ‘to assist the Bank’s countries of operation in Central and Eastern Europe in their economic and social transformation processes’. Between 1992 and 2007 the fund, managed by the CEI Project Secretariat (CEI-PS) at EBRD, received a total contribution of € 28 million. In December 2007 a replenishment of the fund was granted by Italy, amounting to a further € 6 million for the years 2008, 2009 and 2010.
These funds have been actively utilised by the CEI-PS in order to fulfil the Initiative’s mission as an important actor in international diplomatic relations and development
