On 4 May Croatian Prime Minister Ivo Sanader will take over the rotating chair of the SEECP from Greece. Apart from Croatia and Greece, SEECP also includes Albania, Serbia and Montenegro, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey and Bosnia-Herzegovina.
Ahead of Thursday's summit, Croatian Foreign Affairs and European Integration Minister Kolinda Grabar Kitarovic said at a meeting of SEECP member countries that SEECP was not a replacement but a tool for full integration of Southeast Europe with the European Union.
"SEECP must primarily be observed as an instrument for the realisation of plans from the Thessaloniki agenda," Grabar-Kitarovic said, alluding to a document adopted at the Euro-Balkans Summit in 2003.
The Croatian Minister advocated better cooperation among member countries in the process of joining the European Union.
The 9th SEECP summit is expected to end with the adoption of a joint declaration which will underlined the devotion to the European integration process and cooperation.