The areas of interest include economic and social development, infrastructure and energy, justice and home affairs, security cooperation, building human capital and parliamentary cooperation.

The strategy was prepared in close cooperation with the European Commission and 45 other RCC members. It sets the RCC Secretariat’s course of action for the next three years.

In the field of Building Human Capital, the RCC Secretariat has played a key role in the development and promotion of important regional projects. Activities of the RCC Secretariat resulted in the creation of project fiches and the establishment of regional bodies, which will implement project activities, as well as in obtaining funds for the realisation of project activities of related EU programmes.

The 2011–2013 priorities in this sector include:

1. Ljubljana Process: the RCC will take on the role of the coordinator in the new phase of the Ljubljana Process after 2010 (Ljubljana Process II), a project aiming to rehabilitate cultural sites throughout the region. A Task Force on Culture and Society will be established by the RCC, and a permanent secretariat will be appointed by the RCC in cooperation with the Council of Europe and the European Commission, in order to undertake the Ljubljana Process management and fund-raising activities as a counterpart of the national task forces, which will be created in each country of the region. The project amounts to € 1.6 million. Its implementation will start in January 2011.

2. Higher education reform: A steering group for guiding and monitoring the progress of the higher education structural reform will be established under the RCC umbrella. These activities will be realised in coordination with other regional and European initiatives. The project amounts to € 800,000. Its implementation will start in November 2010.

3. Development of a Regional Strategy for Research and Development for Innovation for the Western Balkans: The aim is to develop a comprehensive regional research strategy with an emphasis on identifying existing research capacities and considering how networking and interconnections can be established or improved among Western Balkans institutes and researchers. It will channel their work towards the establishment of benchmarks for research and innovation systems and cooperation at the regional level, as well as explore possibilities to finance such regional initiatives, including initiatives by the business sector. The project amounts to € 1.5 million. Implementation will start in November 2011.