In 2011, the Ministers in charge of the Economy adopted the SEE 2020 Vision, laying out the region’s growth and development priorities contained in five pillars – (i) integrated, (ii) smart, (iii) sustainable and (iv) inclusive growth, underpinned by (v) good governance. Adoption of the SEE 2020 Vision was followed in 2012 by the agreement on 11 regional headline targets backed up by 77 national targets to guide the common regional action towards the end of the decade. In addition to adopting these targets, the Ministerial held on November 9, 2012, in Tirana also mandated the RCC to coordinate the development of the SEE 2020 Strategy and present it for adoption in 2013.

Acting on this mandate, the Regional Cooperation Council has put forward a wide-ranging consultation process to build consensus around a set of priority measures and actions to be developed. Working with the government and regional and international partners, RCC has developed a proposal of the SEE 2020 Strategy, finally adopted by the governments and endorsed by the Ministers of Economy at their meeting in Sarajevo on November 21. 

The policy objectives and measures envisaged by the Strategy should contribute to the creation of some 1 million new jobs during the 2010s. 

The goal of the South East Europe (SEE) 2020 strategy of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), is to improve living conditions in the region and bring competitiveness and development back in focus, closely following the vision of the EU strategy Europe 2020. It stresses out the shared vision of the SEE economies to open up to 1 million new jobs by 2020, by enabling employment growth from 39% to 44%, increase of total regional trade turnover by more than double from 94 to 210 billion euro, the rise of the region’s GDP per capita from current 36% to 44% of the EU average, and the addition of 300,000 highly qualified people to the workforce.