CEI holds annual gathering at Portoroz

Government leaders from nine Central and East European states including the Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, Slovenia, Hungary and Austria met in the Slovenian coastal resort of Portoroz on Friday. It was the fifteenth annual gathering of the Central European Initiative (CEI).

The CEI was set up to improve co-operation among Central European States after the fall of communism. It now has 17 members - from Belarus to Italy - and includes Ukraine. One of the delicate issues on the agenda was the decade old border dispute between Slovenia and Croatia with Slovenia's Prime Minister elect Janez Jansa meeting his Croatian counterpart Ivo Sanader for the first time. Sanader has been heavily critical of the foreign policy of Slovenia's new right wing government. The location of the sea borders between Slovenia and Croatia are still in dispute more than a decade after they seceded from the former Yugoslavia.

Along with the political gathering - a business summit involving economic ministers from many member countries and around 1500 business and financial specialists met in Portoroz. They focused on the competitiveness of economies in the region and infrastructure problems. The main aim of the Central European Initiative is greater economic and cultural cooperation in the region.