The RCC Secretary General Hido Biscevic met in Madrid today with the Secretary of State for Europe at the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Diego López Garrido, and other high-level officials of the Ministry, for consultations on RCC activities and the role of Spain as a future EU presidency holder.

Secretary General Biscevic outlined the RCC activities in the priority areas of economic and social development, infrastructure and energy, justice and home affairs, security cooperation, building human capital and parliamentary cooperation.

State Secretary López Garrido expressed full support of his government to the RCC work and underlined that Spain recognized negative impacts of the current financial crisis on South East Europe. In that context, it was stressed that development of large scale regional projects, in the areas such as transport infrastructure, energy and use of inland waterways, would be an important stimulus to the region in countering the crisis effects.

Mr López Garrido said that Spain would build on the conclusions and results of its predecessor, the Swedish EU presidency, and assured of a continued engagement of his country with the region of South East Europe.