State Secretary Kirbiš Rojs at the South East Europe 2030 Strategy Monitoring Committee meeting

The leaders of the thirteen economies of South East Europe (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, Republic of North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Turkey and Slovenia) adopted the South East Europe 2030 Strategy (SEE 2030) at the South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) Summit which was held in Antalya on 17 June 2021. The adoption of the Strategy also signalled the beginning of the programming and monitoring phase. The Monitoring Committee will oversee the overall process of monitoring as well as review and approve regional projects. At the same time, it will foster regional dialogue, support networking and promote peer reviews to help design tailored measures. The measures outlined in the SEE 2030 Strategy will help better harness the potential of the region whose GDP stood at approximately US$ 2 trillion (in constant prices) according to the data of the International Monetary Fund, and whose economies accounted for around 3.1% of global GDP.

State Secretary Kirbiš Rojs was appointed National Coordinator for monitoring the SEE 2030 Strategy implementation at the 103rd session of the Government of the Republic of Slovenia. Dr Robert Kralj, Ambassador and Head of Department for Development Cooperation at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and mag. Apolonija Oblak Flander, Head of Environmental Statistics Division at the Statistical Office of the Republic of Slovenia were appointed as members of the Task Force of the Republic of Slovenia for SEE 2030 Strategy monitoring. The Task Force represents the Republic of Slovenia in the SEE 2030 Strategy as it cooperates with other countries in the region to advance the 2030 Agenda at the national level and integrate the UN sustainable development goals into national policies, legislation and initiatives.

At the first Monitoring Committee meeting, Slovenian delegation took note of the draft rules of procedure, the draft programming document and the framework for monitoring and evaluation of the Strategy. The SEE 2030 Strategy is based on the sustainable development goals of the UN 2030 Agenda and complements the efforts for green and digital transformation and the recovery of the region after the covid-19, thereby showing synergies with the EU Green Deal and the Recovery and Resilience Plans. State Secretary and the two delegates from Slovenia took note of the framework for monitoring and evaluation of the Strategy and of the Rules of Procedure which were approved and adopted. Monitoring Committee members also discussed draft programming document of the Strategy which was later approved and adopted at the meeting. The abovementioned documents will serve as the basis for the work of the Monitoring Committee that will be responsible for overseeing planning, implementation, monitoring and reporting with a view to strengthening regional cooperation, providing a systematic, efficient and better coordinated support to the economies of the SEECP, fostering the exchange of knowledge and experience and supporting peer learning.