US embassy cable - 05BUCHAREST946

UNCLAS SECTION 01 OF 02 BUCHAREST 000946 
 
SIPDIS 
 
DEPT FOR INL/AAE, EUR/ACE, EUR/NCE, EUR/SCE 
 
E.O. 12958: N/A 
TAGS: ASEC, PREL, ECON, EU, GR, TU, HU, BK, MK, BU, HR, RO, regional organization, SECI 
SUBJECT: SECI UPDATE MARCH 2005 
 
Summary 
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1. SECI Center's governing body, the Joint Cooperation 
Committee (JCC), met on 18 March 2005 in Bucharest for their 
semi-annual meeting.  The agenda of the meeting included the 
approval of the SECI Center's near-term strategy, election 
of a General Director, as well as other issues concerning 
the operations of the Center. While the vote took place, 
neither candidate for General Director passed the two-thirds 
majority threshold required. A new election was agreed upon 
for 16 September 2005. The near-term SECI strategy was 
adopted with the linkage between SECI and GUUAM (Georgia, 
Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan and Republic of Moldova) 
being dropped from the strategy document, with the intention 
of a graduated SECI phase out from the GUUAM process. 
 
Election with No Winner 
----------------------- 
2.  The JCC meeting on 18 March held the election for 
General Director but neither candidate received the 
necessary two-thirds majority (total of eight votes out of 
twelve) to capture the office.  The two candidates, one from 
Turkey and the other from Bosnia and Herzegovina, went 
through two rounds of voting on that day, with the same 
results for both rounds, five votes-Turkish candidate, two 
votes-Bosnian candidate and five abstentions.  The procedure 
is a secret ballot, with no way of telling which delegation 
voted for which candidate.  Upon the failure of the second 
ballot the JCC proposed a date for a new election, September 
16 2005, which was approved.  The deadline for receipt of 
applications for the post of General Director will is 12 
August 2005. 
 
SECI Separation from GUUAM 
-------------------------- 
3.  The JCC decided at its meeting on 18 March that the past 
relationship with the GUUAM project should not only be re- 
evaluated, but in fact dropped from the strategy document 
for the SECI Center. After a discussion that included a 
Moldavian delegation asked for clarification of the motion, 
it was passed unanimously.  In past years, there has been a 
close link between SECI and the still developing GUUAM 
process.  More recently, there has been a concern with the 
JCC that GUUAM was taking more and more resources from SECI 
Center's main focus, Southeast Europe.  A recent European 
Commission document addressed this concern and warned that a 
separation of SECI from GUUAM should be initiated. In light 
of this decision, SECI Center will be pursuing a measured 
decoupling. This decoupling process will involve separating 
GUUAM and SECI funds, with an administrator from outside 
SECI solely managing the GUUAM funds. 
 
Donor's Conference in May 
------------------------- 
4.  It was further decided that a donor's conference would 
be held May 2005 in Bucharest. The participants are 
scheduled to be the US, EU, Germany, Italy, Japan and UK. 
SECI intends to prioritize its initiatives and projects from 
its recently approved strategy document to spark interest in 
funding from the participating countries.  This is the first 
donor's conference that the SECI Center has sponsored in its 
history. USG funding already designated for task force 
projects will be factored into the process, so as not to 
duplicate funding sources.  The success of funding projects 
designated by the Center will ultimately be the greatest 
single factor in the success of the newly approved strategy 
for the SECI Center. 
 
Comment 
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5. The Joint Cooperation Committee meeting of 18 March had 
mixed success as it charted a course for the future of the 
SECI Center. Though it failed to elect a General Director, a 
new date for elections has been set and there is a renewed 
commitment among JCC members to put forth a fresh slate of 
qualified candidates for the September election.  The SECI 
strategy paper was debated and ultimately approved, giving 
the Center a roadmap for its task forces and the issues that 
those task forces will tackle in the coming years.  Finally, 
the JCC decided that the work of SECI should be focused in 
the SECI states and not in points further east, thereby 
separating the activities in SECI states from those in the 
GUUAM region. 
 
6.NOTE: This and other SECI related cables are available on 
the Bucharest SIPERnet site under - RSO, Law Enforcement. 
DELARE