ANNUAL REPORT 2003 Putting Regional Co-ordination Into Practice Democratization South-Eastern Europe their countries, as well as a chance to process that helped contribute to the consider possibilities for institutional realization of benchmarks developed co-operation at the regional level. by the United Nations for regional cooperation; they have also helped trig- Many of the issues that were dis- ger co-operation between non-gov- For two days in October, Sarajevo cussed - rule of law and good gover- ernmental organizations in Belgrade played host to legislators from nance, corruption and organized and Pristina - this conference was an- throughout South-Eastern Europe at crime, trafficking in human beings, other major step in bringing together a conference dedicated to the role of youth, civil society, refugee returns, relevant political actors to discuss parliaments in human and economic poverty reduction, and socioeconom- ways of enhancing reconciliation, de- development in the region. Orga- ic development - are linked to the velopment, and normalization process- nized and sponsored by the ODIHR, fragmentation of the former Yu- es in South-Eastern Europe. five OSCE missions in South-Eastern goslavia, which led to widespread so- Europe, and the OSCE's Office of the cial dislocation, uneven develop- Planning for the event began in 2002 Co-ordinator for Economic and Envi- ment, increased unemployment and and was followed up in January ronmental Affairs, the conference poverty, and the collapse of the so- 2003 when the ODIHR and the OSCE welcomed participants from some 19 cial safety net throughout the region. Presence in Albania facilitated a re- state and non-state parliaments in While a number of international or- gional meeting of OSCE experts on the region and from neighbouring ganizations have been working to parliamentary support in South-East- countries, as well as from the Euro- find solutions to these problems, ern Europe. Several additional plan- pean Parliament, and experts from there has been a gradual reduction ning and preparatory meetings fol- the OSCE and the World Bank. of international assistance over re- lowed during the year between the cent years, as the international com- ODIHR and mission experts. munity has been transferring power New perspectives to local authorities. As such, there is a growing gap that needs to be filled by national governments and elected Looking ahead parliaments, by mobilizing their own Previous interparliamentary confer- resources to generate development. ences in the region have usually been Many conference participants have of a political nature, focusing on called upon the ODIHR and the achieving agreements on overarch- OSCE missions to build on the results ing principles or generalized reforms. The idea for the Sarajevo conference, however, stemmed from the recogni- Seeds of development tion that parliamentarians have often of the conference in order to facilitate capacity-building activities among parliaments, as well as parliamentarians, throughout the region. The been left out of the debate, at least The conference came into being as a ODIHR and the OSCE missions in the at the supranational level, on policy result of the OSCE's internal co-ordi- region have been consulting with choices and have been overlooked as nation process for human dimension one another and with other partners possible recipients for technical-assis- issues between the ODIHR and OSCE on possible follow-up activities to tance conference missions in South-Eastern Europe. further support this process in 2004. brought parliamentarians into that Coming in the wake of other region- debate, giving them an opportunity al activities - the ODIHR and the to discuss at a technical level com- OSCE missions in South-Eastern Eu- mon development issues facing all rope worked together to initiate a projects. This 45