The Tisza River Development Program
First Working Group Meeting

4 Rue du Trone; 1000 Brussels, Belgium March 10, 2006

February 28, 2006

Working Group Meeting, Brussels, March 10, 2006

Dear Ms./Mr. .........,

As you might remember this is a cross-border initiative, embracing five countries (Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Ukraine) along the Tisza River with a population of approximately 15.7 million, with the objective of helping improve the life of the communities living along the Tisza River. This is the only geographical region currently in Europe that embraces 2 EU members (Slovakia and Hungary), 2 EU candidates (Romania, and Serbia and Montenegro), and 1 European Neighborhood Policy partner country (Ukraine). This is a unique and intensively complex space/region which condenses important legal, environmental, economic and social issues Europe will eventually have to face and resolve. These include, for instance, water poisoning and flood problems, originating from outside of the EU, though affecting the EU's territory, as well.

Two of the five affected countries are new European Union members that pledged to fulfill their commitments as emerging donors. Both Slovakia and Hungary along with the rest of the EU members adopted the European Union Statement on Aid Effectiveness (March 2, 2005) and the European Consensus on Development (November 23, 2005). In these statements, it was stated, "national ownership, donor coordination and harmonization, starting at field level, alignment to recipient country systems and results orientation are core principles." Also, the Consensus sets out that the "EU will advance coordination, harmonization and alignment".

In sum, this Program could very well demonstrate and/or pilot how two new donors coordinate their development activities not only among each other, but also with the next waves of potential EU members and a European Neighbourhood Policy partner country, to achieve higher scale and sustainable results at a coordinated and harmonized fashion. In addition, a true ownership demonstrated by the five countries largely contributes to the expected final positive outcomes. The Tisza Development Program can thus, represent an interesting development cooperation program among EU members, potential candidate countries and a European Neighbourhood Policy partner country.

Technical international development agencies, such as the Tisza Committee, The United Nations Development Program (UNDP), and the Food and Agriculture Organization (UN/FAO) are aware of this initiative and endorse its importance.

During the past years, various bilateral meetings had been held with the affected five countries' representatives (Hungary, Romania, Serbia and Montenegro, Slovakia, Ukraine) both at government and civil society levels.

We think that the time is by now mature enough to bring all these actors together in the framework of a short Working Group meeting and discuss concrete next steps to make the initiative ready for its official launch envisaged for late September 2006. The official launch will result in the signing of an International Charta by representatives of the five countries and the international development agencies.

We plan to start the working group meeting at 2:00 PM on March 10 (Friday) and end with a dinner. The detailed program of the meeting, as well as the list of participants is attached to this letter.

Further information about the Tisza River Development Program is attached to this letter, including the draft text of the Charta.

Sincerely:

Attachment: Background of the Tisza Development Program.