The Regional Centre REGENT was established in June 2001 as a result of the Pan-European Conference of the High Representatives of Local/Regional Public Authorities & Europe Houses held in Bucharest, supported by the Open Society Institute, FIME and the European Commission.

Our Centre is aimed to promote: a constructive dialogue and development projects for the benefit of leading urban centres in the Central and South-eastern European area; the improvement of the working style and of the decision-making autonomy of the local/regional public authorities in the region.

• workshops and round-tables in order to inform and raise awareness in the field of developing the capabilities of the public authorities representatives and of the support of the sustainable development at the local and regional levels;
• exchanges of information, counseling, managerial assistance and experts;
• training sessions on specific issues required by partners and continuous education in all fields of expertise of the Centre;
• projects in favor of concluding partnerships, co-operation programmes and twinning between the public authorities / administrations themselves, as well as between these authorities and the relevant NGOs;
• research, advocacy, promotional events and lobby projects aimed to support the decentralization process and the decisional/financial autonomy, as well as for the fulfillment of a sustainable development according to the criteria imposed by the construction of an United Europe;
• internship and fellowship programmes for young elected persons and civil servants, involved in the process of modernization of the public administration and of building a new corporate partnership, aimed to improve the degree of cross-border co-operation and regional harmonization of the whole regional;
• projects dedicated to provide the informational support able to permanently connect the members/partners of the REGENT Network and to contribute to an increasing and improvement of the flow of communication and mutual consultancy between various partners involved in the activity of the Centre.

New affiliated members of the network:

European Reunion for the Partnership of Local Authorities
with the Civil Society in Central and South-Eastern Europe

COMMON PLATFORM OF REGIONAL ACTION
IN CENTRAL AND SOUTH-EASTERN EUROPE

The participants to the works of the pan-European Reunion "The Vocation of Central and Eastern European National/Regional Capitals in Accelerating the Accession of the Candidates-States to the European Union" in Bucharest between June 22^nd-24^th 2001, as representatives of the local / regional authorities from 12 European cities,

aware of the importance represented by the establishment of a new type of partnership in Central and South Eastern Europe between the public local and regional authorities of the national/regional Capitals of the Member States of the Council of Europe and of OSCE,

in view of avoiding the rising of new artificial borders and of generating new sources of instability in the region,

as well as in view of establishing new credible and modern interest-groups, following the model offered by the European Union, in order to make their loyal competition and dialogue be advantageous to the society as a whole,

for a harmonized support of the implementation of democratic principles, characteristic for an active European citizenship at the level of the local communities and regions in the concerned area looking forward to strengthen democracy,

for diminishing the gaps, anachronisms and historical errors in the process of development and rebuilding of the regions affected by totalitarianism,

launch a Call to all the public local and regional authorities in Europe for the shaping of a Common Platform of Regional Action in Central and South-Eastern Europe intended to promote multi-national and cross-border projects and of inter-cultural co-operation as well, projects which should contribute to the acceleration of the European unification process and to a faster reinsertion of all the Capitals in the region within the common cultural patrimony and within the European stream of cultural exchanges and at the other levels of common interest.

Towards this end, the participants would like to express their gratitude for the support of the Foundation for an Open Society, of the International Federation of Europe Houses (FIME) and of the European Commission, of all the other generous sponsors who made possible the organisation of this Reunion.

The participants propose taht the objectives mentioned in the Common Platform of Regional Action in Central and South-Eastern Europe should be initiated and supported with the aid of a Centre for Partnership between Public Local/Regional Authorities and the Nongovernmental Organisations in Central and South Eastern Europe, Centre which will be hosted by the City Hall of Bucharest.

The Centre which is to be founded addresses a call to the international and European organisations, to the business and bank sector to join in a constructive manner for the support of this common initiative which should put into practice, according to the principle of European subsidiarity, the objectives of the Stability Pact in South Eastern Europe and of the process for preparation in view of the enlargement of the European Union.

The participants also welcome the initiative of the recently established network SCENE, founded at the suggestion of the European Academy in Vienna, network which will constitute a strategic partner for our Common Platform for Regional Action.

The participants also hope to continue the collaboration with other governmental and nongovernmental organizations interested in the objectives we have proposed.

They reconfirm that they will focus all their efforts to the aim of applying this Platform and that the projects which are to be launched will be developed within FIME and with the support of other centers in the spirit of the ideas of open partnership and of support of the ideals of the united Europe.

Bucharest, 24 June 2001