A major step towards ownership of the Steering Platform by the Western Balkan countries - as suggested by Commissioner Potočnik in his opening speech in Vienna - happened on October 18, 2006, in Königswinter/Bonn, Germany. Taking advantage of a meeting in the so-called “West Balkan Forum of SEE-ERA.NET”, the participants representing the relevant ministries of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Montenegro, and Serbia, discussed a proposal for the rules of procedure for the Steering Platform.
On October 20, during the SEE-ERA.NET Steering Board Meeting, the results were presented to Tania Friederichs from the European Commission and Elke Dall from the Information Office in form of a working document, envisaging the establishment of a sustainable structure of the platform with a clear allocation of responsibilities.
In order to provide a sound basis for the Steering Platform in the future, the possibility of an INCO-NET was considered, which is an activitiy scheduled in the “Capacities” Programme under FP7. More details are provided here.

Article published in eJournal fall 06.