SECI UPDATE MARCH 2005

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BUCHAREST 000946

SIPDIS

DEPT FOR INL/AAE, EUR/ACE, EUR/NCE, EUR/SCE

E.O. 12958: N/A
TAGS: ASEC PREL ECON EU GR TU HU BK MK BU HR RO SECI
SUBJECT: SECI UPDATE MARCH 2005

Summary
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1. SECI Center's governing body, the Joint Cooperation
Committee (JCC),met on 18 March 2005 in Bucharest for their
semi-annual meeting. The agenda of the meeting included the
approval of the SECI Center's near-term strategy, election
of a General Director, as well as other issues concerning
the operations of the Center. While the vote took place,
neither candidate for General Director passed the two-thirds
majority threshold required. A new election was agreed upon
for 16 September 2005. The near-term SECI strategy was
adopted with the linkage between SECI and GUUAM (Georgia,
Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Republic of Moldova)
being dropped from the strategy document, with the intention
of a graduated SECI phase out from the GUUAM process.

Election with No Winner
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2. The JCC meeting on 18 March held the election for
General Director but neither candidate received the
necessary two-thirds majority (total of eight votes out of
twelve) to capture the office. The two candidates, one from
Turkey and the other from Bosnia and Herzegovina, went
through two rounds of voting on that day, with the same
results for both rounds, five votes-Turkish candidate, two
votes-Bosnian candidate and five abstentions. The procedure
is a secret ballot, with no way of telling which delegation
voted for which candidate. Upon the failure of the second
ballot the JCC proposed a date for a new election, September
16 2005, which was approved. The deadline for receipt of
applications for the post of General Director will is 12
August 2005.

SECI Separation from GUUAM
--------------

3. The JCC decided at its meeting on 18 March that the past
relationship with the GUUAM project should not only be re-
evaluated, but in fact dropped from the strategy document
for the SECI Center. After a discussion that included a
Moldavian delegation asked for clarification of the motion,
it was passed unanimously. In past years, there has been a
close link between SECI and the still developing GUUAM
process. More recently, there has been a concern with the
JCC that GUUAM was taking more and more resources from SECI
Center's main focus, Southeast Europe. A recent European
Commission document addressed this concern and warned that a
separation of SECI from GUUAM should be initiated. In light
of this decision, SECI Center will be pursuing a measured
decoupling. This decoupling process will involve separating
GUUAM and SECI funds, with an administrator from outside
SECI solely managing the GUUAM funds.

Donor's Conference in May
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4. It was further decided that a donor's conference would
be held May 2005 in Bucharest. The participants are
scheduled to be the US, EU, Germany, Italy, Japan and UK.
SECI intends to prioritize its initiatives and projects from
its recently approved strategy document to spark interest in
funding from the participating countries. This is the first
donor's conference that the SECI Center has sponsored in its
history. USG funding already designated for task force
projects will be factored into the process, so as not to
duplicate funding sources. The success of funding projects
designated by the Center will ultimately be the greatest
single factor in the success of the newly approved strategy
for the SECI Center.

Comment
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5. The Joint Cooperation Committee meeting of 18 March had
mixed success as it charted a course for the future of the
SECI Center. Though it failed to elect a General Director, a
new date for elections has been set and there is a renewed
commitment among JCC members to put forth a fresh slate of
qualified candidates for the September election. The SECI
strategy paper was debated and ultimately approved, giving
the Center a roadmap for its task forces and the issues that
those task forces will tackle in the coming years. Finally,
the JCC decided that the work of SECI should be focused in
the SECI states and not in points further east, thereby
separating the activities in SECI states from those in the
GUUAM region.

6.NOTE: This and other SECI related cables are available on
the Bucharest SIPERnet site under - RSO, Law Enforcement.
DELARE