Foreign ministers or their representatives from 17 central and southeast European countries were meeting Friday in a northern Slovak resort to discuss the situation in the region, regional cooperation and other issues. The meeting of the Central European Initiative (CEI), created in 1989, brought together foreign ministers from Croatia and Slovakia as well as officials from the Czech Republic, Austria, Italy, Hungary, Poland, Slovenia, Romania, Bulgaria, Albania, Belarus, Macedonia, Moldova, Ukraine, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia-Montenegro to the town of Tatranska Lomnica. In his opening remarks, Slovak Foreign Minister Eduard Kukan said last year's enlargement of the European Union has "positively influenced the region." Five of the new EU members are also represented in the CEI. "A year after the historic enlargement the EU is richer from the positive activities of new members," he said.
