Education

A successful and sustainable development of the education sector has to respond to new needs, e.g. employment, fighting "brain drain", development, information technology, social cohesion, private sector involvement, Life Long Learning, youth involvement. Education therefore has to reach out to the wider political arena, the economy and the labour market, social and health systems as well as social partners, and has to integrate issues such as diversity and multi-ethnicity. This session will elaborate on better cooperation and coordination between education and other sectors and will highlight the conference on “Governance and Education for Sustainable Development and European Integration“ (27-29 January 2005 in Graz), in which the role of education for democratisation, stability and economic development in the countries of SEE as well as for their inclusion into an enlarged Europe will be reconsidered.

Local Democracy and Cross-border Cooperation

Local democracy and Cross-border Cooperation are two of the main preconditions for sustainable political, social and economic development in SEE. The focus of this session will be on the presentation of the Ministerial Conference on “Effective Democratic Governance at Local and Regional Level” (25-26 October in Zagreb), which has the aim to encourage the development of effective and democratic local government in the region. The outcome should consist of legislative improvements, closer dialogue between central and local government, stronger leadership and strategic management in local authorities, greater citizen participation, better local public services and active cross-border cooperation. The panel will also explore potential programmes of cooperation with other states and international partners.