As part of the Montenegrin SEECP chairmanship, ministries of Economy, Sustainable Development and Energy and the Office for Sustainable Development, in coordination with the MFAEI, organised a ministerial meeting on the topics of sustainable development and energy. The meeting, titled "Green Economy in the Energy Sector in the Context of Sustainable Development," was opened by Minister of Economy and Minister of Sustainable Development and Tourism, Vladimir Kavarić and Predrag Sekulić, and the Acting Director of the Sustainable Development Office, Bosiljka Vuković.

The meeting was organised as a formal sub-regional initiative preparation for the UN Sustainable Development Conference in Rio de Janeiro in 2012, with the view to identifying regional needs, priorities and arranging further cooperation in this area.

Economy Minister Vladimir Kavarić said that Montenegro and other member-states should give priority to cooperation in this area and should view it as a contribution to the political stability and economic growth as preconditions for attracting FDI, inclusive growth and sustainable development. He said that future investments should be directed towards sustainable energy resources, public transportation, energy efficiency, sustainable agriculture and measures aimed at protecting the eco-system and bio-diversity.

Minister of Sustainable Development and Tourism Predrag Sekulić reiterated that Montenegro is strongly committed to economic development based on the principles of "green economy." "As a state constitutionally defined as ecological, Montenegro is undertaking measures aimed at enabling the harmonisation of development needs and priorities with globally accepted principles of sustainable development. The whole concept of economic development and any individual project will be continually filtered through the framework of sustainable development and environmental protection," underlined Minister Sekulić.

Acting Director of the Sustainable Development Office, Bosiljka Vuković, stressed that the essence of green economy in Montenegro has been strategically developing through principles of sustainable development and guidelines for their implementation outlined in the National Sustainable Development Strategy.

Member-states have unanimously agreed that the Rio meeting will be an opportunity to give political support to sustainable development, and that it will be important for global socio-economic developments, since it will for the first time globally define the "green" aspect of macro-economic national policy. In this context, the meeting's guest, Park in Kook, Co-chair of the UN Committee for Sustainable Development, encouraged the countries that have not implemented the green economy concept to do so as early as possible in accordance with their development possibilities and national specificities.

SEECP Ministers in charge of sustainable development and energy adopted today the "Budva Declaration on strengthening regional cooperation and coordination in promotion of energy in the context of sustainable development and green economy un South East Europe," which stresses strong dedication to coordinating public activities in the area of research, development and promotion of inclusive growth and sustainable development, recognising at the same time the importance of private investment, private-public partnership and international cooperation, including regional innovation centres.

The Declaration confirms the need to work together on removing barriers, creating incentives, improving capacity building and undertaking necessary measures based in best practice, as well as the accelerated implementation and key low carbon level technology transfer in accordance with circumstances.