"The Western Balkans is a key responsibility for the EU, and the state of that region is critical to the security and welfare of our own citizens," Rehn said, adding that accession talks with Croatia were progressing well.
The conference highlighted the achievements of the Partners project since its launch in 2004, including 15 partnerships established between EU and Western Balkan chambers, 670 staff from Western Balkan chambers benefiting from intensive training and workshops, two studies on the state of regional competitiveness, and 35 scholarships for Eurochambres high-level training awarded to executives from Western Balkan chambers.
Partners is Eurochambres' two-year project under the Regional CARDS programme promoting the development of national and regional chambers of commerce in the Western Balkans. With an overall budget of 2.15 million euros, it provides for assistance in regional trade and networking with a view to achieving economic recovery and stability.
Today Central and Eastern European countries are the motors of European economic dynamism, but despite strong economic and entrepreneurial potential and progress, economic power and living standards are still relatively low. In order to increase direct foreign investment, it is necessary to ensure a safe legislative framework, strengthen administration and resolve the problem of corruption, the conference heard.
Croatian chambers that took part in the project were the county chambers of Zagreb, Varazdin, Rijeka and Karlovac, which agreed cooperation with EU chambers.
"After two years of lobbying, the Croatian Chamber of the Economy managed to get funds from the Partners project, which have been invested in partnerships between Croatian county chambers and EU chambers, sending people to Eurochambres academies for training, participation in seminars on European topics, and dissemination of information at seminars we organised for firms in Croatia. Over the last year we have been intensely working on starting a new project for chambers of EU acceding countries that would work in cooperation with Eurochambres. The project would be financed from the PHARE programme. Although there have been no concrete agreements yet, I am sure we will be successful," said Dragica Martinovic, director of the HGK office in Brussels.