The Government of Albania and the European Commission are jointly organising a conference on "Donor coordination in the Western Balkans and Turkey" that will take place in Tirana on 2-3 April 2009. Around 200 stakeholders will discuss potential improvements and better coordination of their activities. 

The aims of the Conference are to take stock of progress made in enhancing donor coordination, exchange best practices, address remaining deficiencies and make practical recommendations on how to further enhance donor coordination and ensure efficient distribution of task among donors. Concrete measures will be discussed in the sectors of education, environment and transport all of which play a key role in socio-economic development and in European and regional integration of the Western Balkans and Turkey. 

The conference will be opened by the Director General for Enlargement, Mr. Michael Leigh, together with the Prime Minister of the Government of Albania, H.E. Mr. Sali Berisha, and the Ambassador of the Czech Republic to Albania, H.E. Mrs. Marketa Fialkova. 

Donors’ financial assistance to the Western Balkans and Turkey amounted to some EUR 20 billion during the period 2005-2008. The last conference on donor coordination took place in October 2008 in Brussels on the initiative of the European Commission. Following its recommendations, the conference in Tirana will be the first to take place in a beneficiary country and will bring together some 200 representatives of the International Financial Institutions, European Union Member States, non-EU donors and representatives of the Western Balkans and Turkey.  

To find out more about the conference and about Donor Coordination in the Western Balkans and Turkey, please visit:  

http://ec.europa.eu/enlargement/projects-in-focus/donor-coordination/index_en.htm