Future role of the RCC and its Strategic Work Programme for 2011-2013 was in focus of a meeting between RCC Secretary General Hido Biscevic and Director General for Enlargement in the European Commission Michael Leigh, held in Brussels today.

Director General Leigh positively assessed the work of the RCC and its Secretariat, and supported the current draft of the RCC strategy for the next three years. He underlined the increasing role the RCC is assuming in South East Europe, in view also of the current economic crisis.

Moreover, he added that the European Commission was keen on seeing the RCC take over a more assertive and leading role in relation to the development of regional cooperation in South East Europe.

Secretary General Biscevic informed on the next steps in the finalization of the RCC Strategic Work Programme for 2011-2013, namely, its envisaged adoption by the RCC Board on 18 May and subsequent endorsement by the organization’s Annual Meeting and the Summit of the South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) the following month.

The two officials exchanged views on the political situation in the region, emphasizing the need to address open issues in a spirit of mutual understanding, compromise and restraint.

They touched upon two upcoming events related to the realization of the European perspective of the Western Balkans – a meeting of Western Balkan countries organized by Slovenia and Croatia later this month in Brdo kod Kranja, and the Ministerial EU-Western Balkans Forum to be organized under the auspices of the Spanish EU Presidency in June 2010.