Southeast European Cooperative Initiative

The Southeast European Cooperative Initiative, or the SECI, has been an initiative that, under the auspices of men like Erhard Busek

Erhard Busek

Erhard Busek is a politician from the Christian-conservative People's Party . At present he is Coordinator of the South-Eastern Cooperative Initiative and Chairman of the Institute for Danube Region and Central Europe among other things.Busek was chief of the party and Vice-Chancellor of Austria...

and Richard Schifter, has been successful in providing stability in an unstable region and has found support in international organizations and countries. As of 2009, the region has found confidence in its new stability and along with the help of the SECI, has created a Regional Co-operation Council

Regional Co-operation Council

The Regional Cooperation Council, or RCC, is a regional cooperative framework for countries in South East Europe, with the stated goal of "promoting mutual cooperation and European and Euro-Atlantic integration of South East Europe in order to inspire development in the region to the benefit of its...

(RCC), owned and run by the countries in Southeast Europe aimed at strengthening peace, democracy and the economy in the hopes that the newfound stability can be supported by those countries who not so long ago were the perpetuators of volatility.

The SECI Regional Center Headquarters is located in Bucharest

Bucharest

Bucharest is the capital municipality, cultural, industrial, and financial centre of Romania. It is the largest city in Romania, located in the southeast of the country, at , and lies on the banks of the Dâmbovița River....

Romania

Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central and Southeastern Europe, on the Lower Danube, within and outside the Carpathian arch, bordering on the Black Sea...

Membership

Member states:

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Observer European states:

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Observer states outside Europe:

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Observer International Organizations:
- International Organization for Migration
  International Organization for Migration
  The International Organization for Migration is an intergovernmental organization. It was initially established in 1951 as the Intergovernmental Committee for European Migration to help resettle people displaced by World War II....
  
  (IOM)
- European Institute for Law Enforcement Cooperation (EULEC)
- International Center for Migration Policy Development (ICMPD)
- United Nations
  United Nations
  The United Nations is an international organization whose stated aims are facilitating cooperation in international law, international security, economic development, social progress, human rights, and achievement of world peace...
  
  Mission to Kosovo (UNMIK)

Background of the SECI

The Southeast European Cooperative Initiative was formed in 1996 under the guidance of then, Senior Director for Eastern Europe in the United States National Security Council

United States National Security Council

The White House National Security Council in the United States is the principal forum used by the President of the United States for considering national security and foreign policy matters with his senior national security advisors and Cabinet officials and is part of the Executive Office of the...

, Richard Schifter. His initial idea was modeled after the Marshall Plan

Marshall Plan

The Marshall Plan was the large-scale American program to aid Europe where the United States gave monetary support to help rebuild European economies after the end of World War II in order to combat the spread of Soviet communism. The plan was in operation for four years beginning in April 1948...

of 1947 which was used to help rebuild Europe after World War II, and considering that the war

Bosnian War

The Bosnian War or the War in Bosnia and Herzegovina was an international armed conflict that took place in Bosnia and Herzegovina between April 1992 and December 1995. The war involved several sides...

in Bosnia and Herzegovina was coming to a close, he felt stability in the region would be immediately necessary. His initial plan, called the Southeast European Cooperative Development Initiative, was intended to focus on regional cooperation of the countries in Southeast Europe, or SEE, and not be considered a financial assistance plan. The idea was to allow SEE countries access to resources that would help them rebuild and stabilize, but not to provide them directly with the money. The only assistance provided by outside organizations and countries, like the United States, would be in the form of technical assistance as well as providing experts on relevant subjects. Richard Schifter’s hunch in the autumn of 1995 was realized on 14 December, when a cease-fire was announced and peace negotiations were signed in Dayton, Ohio

Dayton, Ohio

Dayton is the 6th largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County, the fifth most populous county in the state. The population was 141,527 at the 2010 census. The Dayton Metropolitan Statistical Area had a population of 841,502 in the 2010 census...

under the Dayton Agreement

Dayton Agreement

The General Framework Agreement for Peace in Bosnia and Herzegovina, also known as the Dayton Agreement, Dayton Accords, Paris Protocol or Dayton-Paris Agreement, is the peace agreement reached at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base near Dayton, Ohio in November 1995, and formally signed in Paris on...

.
The next step was to get all the countries in the region together and agree to join a cooperation initiative; an extremely difficult task considering the ethnic tension that dominates the regional culture. The SECI was originally composed of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Greece, Hungary, Moldova, Romania, Yugoslavia, Croatia and Slovenia. However those last three participants caused some growing pains for the initiative in its nascent stages. Yugoslavia’s invitation was revoked after the country cancelled local election results when a minority party won the popular vote, eventually being allowed in as Serbia and Montenegro

Serbia and Montenegro

Serbia and Montenegro was a country in southeastern Europe, formed from two former republics of the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia : Serbia and Montenegro. Following the breakup of Yugoslavia, it was established in 1992 as a federation called the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia...

and Slovenia and Croatia originally agreed to join but only as observer nations. The Slovenian concern was that they were a Central European country, not part of SEE, but once Hungary joined, they quickly followed suit. Croatia was more of a challenge in that not only did they not see themselves as a SEE country, but President Tudjman in an interview with Richard Schifter said that Croatia was a “Catholic, Mediterranean country” that wants nothing to do with the “Orthodox and the Muslims.” In 1999, President Tudjman was hospitalized, eventually dying and shortly after Croatia joined the SECI as a full-fledged member. Kosovo is another area of contention for the SEE countries. During the time of the formation of the SECI, in 1996, they were only recognized as a region and by 1999, they were governed by the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), under the UNSC Resolution 1244

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244

United Nations Security Council Resolution 1244, adopted on June 10, 1999, after recalling resolutions 1160 , 1199 , 1203 and 1239 , authorised an international civil and military presence in Kosovo ) and established the United Nations Interim Administration Mission in Kosovo .Resolution...

; in February 2008, the Assembly of Kosovo declared its independence

2008 Kosovo declaration of independence

The 2008 Kosovo declaration of independence was adopted on 17 February 2008 by individual members of the Assembly of Kosovo acting in personal capacity and not binding to the Assembly itself...

from Serbia. Despite this, they are still only recognized as an independent state , with Russia and Serbia leading the opposition of the declaration and the European Union

European Union

The European Union is an economic and political union of 27 independent member states which are located primarily in Europe. The EU traces its origins from the European Coal and Steel Community and the European Economic Community , formed by six countries in 1958...

having no official position on the situation as well as the United Nations saying that Resolution 1244 will remain the legal framework in Kosovo. Kosovo has never been and currently is not considered a member state by the SECI either, only a permanent observer.

External links

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Membership

Background of the SECI

See also

External links