The conference was organised by the Nordic Initiative countries - Denmark, Finland, Iceland, Norway and Sweden, with Croatia's support.
The purpose of the initiative, established at a 30 November 2004 conference in Ljubljana, is to harmonise efforts by allied and other friendly countries and organisations in providing support for southeast European countries - NATO candidates and countries aspiring to join Partnership for Peace - in the implementation of their defence reforms, Brigadier Mike Anderson, representative of the US European Command (EUCOM), told reporters.
Information on certain forms of support needed by members of this initiative is exchanged through a data base.
The founders of the initiative are US EUCOM, Slovenia, Albania, Croatia, Macedonia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia and Montenegro. The next SEEC conference will be held in Belgrade next June.