Meeting of the Academic Working Group and Group of Experts of the Budget Transparency Initiative for the Southeast European Countries

On December 18th -19th, 2003 at the Shipka Hotel in the city of Sofia, a meeting of the Academic Working Group of the Defence Budget Transparency Initiative took place, in which experts from Southeast Europe (SEE) took part. This initiative has been developed within the framework of Working Table III of the Stability Pact for SEE, and for which Bulgaria and Great Britain have joint responsibility.

The names, positions, institutions and nationalities of all the participants in the meeting are listed in Appendix 1.

The meeting was opened on December 18, 2003 with short introductory words by Deputy Minister of Defence Mr. Ilko Dimitrov; by the national coordinator of the Stability Pact for Bulgaria Mr. Milen Keremedchiev; by the co-chairmen of the Academic Working Group of the Initiative Prof. Tilcho Ivanov from the University of National and World Economy (UNWE) in Sofia and Prof. David Greenwood from the University of Groningen, the Netherlands.

Prof. T. Ivanov chaired the first working session.

Prof. David Greenwood chaired the second working session.

CONCLUSIONS of the meeting:

1. It is generally accepted that the Initiative has gone quite far; it is of significant importance to regional security and stability and it should be given the opportunity to continue to be developed in the future.
2. The members of the Academic Working Group actively took part in the meeting.
3. The event took place at a critical point of the development of the Initiative and it was useful to define alternatives for its future development.
4. A thorough critical analysis of the accomplishments under the Initiative during the last two years was done; the reasons for the difficult work on the Initiative were analyzed, including insufficient involvement of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MFA), the Stability Pact and the lack of political support.
5. The documents, which have been developed so far, were presented and analyzed, namely “Yearbook on SEE Defence Spending - 2003“ and Methodology for Assessment of Military Budgeting Processes in SEE.
6. Some strong suggestions for the future development of the Initiative were put forward for discussion.
7. The representation of the SEE countries for various reasons was incomplete.
8. As the Initiative had started under the aegis of the OSCE, it is right if its development continues to be under the aegis of the same organization, probably in close cooperation with SEEGROUP.
9. The Stability Pact for SEE is ready to continue to support the Initiative, but it is necessary that its “visibility” be enhanced in order to attract the attention by presenting its products - “Yearbook on SEE Defence Spending - 2003“ and Methodology for Assessment of Military Budgeting Processes in SEE.

PROPOSALS:

1. In early 2004 the Secretariat of the Initiative should draft and present an update of the progress of the Initiative before the Management of the Stability Pact and SEEGROUP.
2. Because of the fact that the future funding of the Initiative is not guaranteed, the completion of the “Yearbook on SEE Defence Spending - 2003“ and the methodological “Survey of Defence Budgeting Processes in SEE” should be accelerated in order to be presented before the Management of the Stability Pact and SEEGROUP.
3. Through the MFA, the representatives of the Republic of Bulgaria to the OSCE should receive as a task to give the Initiative more profile and assist the gathering and processing of data.
4. At the Ministry of Defence, within the Defence Planning and Programming Directorate, the Secretariat of the Initiative should continue the function of co-ordinating its activities.
5. The Secretariat of the Multinational Steering Group and the Academic Working Group should prepare a proposal to the national coordinator of the Stability Pact for Bulgaria Mr. Milen Keremedchiev to support the involvement of the national coordinators of Stability Pact from all SEE countries as members of the Multinational Steering Group of the Initiative. The proposal should be put up for discussion before the Management of the Stability Pact for SEE by the national coordinator for Bulgaria.
6. The cooperation with the faculty in Bulgaria and abroad should continue; particularly useful is the collaboration with representatives of organizations like the Institute for Defence Analyses (IDA) of the USA and the Geneva Center for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF), based in Switzerland.
7. With the assistance of the MoD, a Transparency Center at the UNWE should be established under the management of Prof. Tilcho Ivanov (Co-chairman of the Academic Working Group).
8. In the second half of February 2004 a representative of the Secretariat of the Initiative from the MoD, should join the national representative of the Stability Pact Mr. Keremedchiev, during his visit to Brussels in his meetings at the Stability Pact in order to present, in the form of a “Prospectus” the vision for restructuring within the Initiative and possibilities for its future funding.
9. The Secretariat of the Multinational Steering Group and Academic Working Group should develop the “Prospectus” with Portfolios of the perspectives for the development of the Initiative, to include a package of the necessary financial resources, for presentation at the next set of meetings in Brussels scheduled for mid February and subsequently for the next meeting of the Academic Working Group and Group of Experts, which is unlikely to be before the end of June 2004.

Appendix 2 presents a Comparative Assessment of Military Budgeting Processes and Practices in South Eastern Europe, endorsed at the BTI meeting on 18-19 December 2003 in Sofia.