South East Europe Corporate Governance Roundtable

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Background

The South East Europe Corporate Governance Roundtable was established in September 2001, in response to growing awareness among policy-makers and donors in the region regarding the importance of corporate governance. This Roundtable includes participants from nine countries in the SEE region, namely Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Serbia, and Romania.

The South East Europe Corporate Governance Roundtable is a regional flagship initiative of the Investment Compact. The Investment Compact, adopted in February 2000, is a vital part of economic reform activities to be carried out under Working Table II of the Stability Pact for South East Europe, dealing with economic reconstruction, co-operation and development.

The Roundtable has seen some progress in corporate governance, since it issued its English on Corporate Governance in South East Europe in 2003, including a number of legislative and regulatory reforms undertaken in recent years. Corporate governance codes have been developed with the support of the business sector, and stock exchanges have introduced special listing segments requiring higher corporate governance standards. The Roundtable has contributed to this progress not only through policy dialogue and development of recommendations at its meetings, but also through the ongoing efforts of its participants – representatives of stock exchanges, regulators, corporate governance institutes and other reform-oriented stakeholders – to raise awareness and support reform initiatives in individual countries. (Corporate Governance Developments in South East Europe).

On-going and Future Work

In the last meeting of the South East Europe Roundtable, it was agreed that the Roundtable should focus on the following issues in its future efforts to bring about substantial additional improvements in corporate governance in order to strengthen capital markets and create a better climate for investment and economic growth in the region:

o Effective enforcement of corporate governance rules
o Commitment of the private sector, in particular of boards, to the corporate governance reform process
o Disclosure of financial and non-financial information

The South East Europe Roundtable presented an action plan to the Ministerial Meeting of the Investment Compact in Vienna on 26 and 27 June 2006. In preparation of that meeting, a report was provided by the Roundtable to the Investment Compact Project Team meeting.

As an immediate follow-up to the last meeting of the Roundtable, a so-called “Companies Circle”, will be established, which will gather a group of companies, either having already a good record regarding corporate governance or taking concrete steps in this direction, that can serve as models for other companies in the region.

White Paper on Corporate Governance in South East Europe

The White Paper proposes a set of practical recommendations and should serve as a means for setting priorities and implementing reform at national or corporate level. The White Paper recommendations, which were drafted by consensus, are a tool for promoting good corporate governance in the region, as well as for assessing progress by individual countries. They are designed to provide guidance for countries as they develop new rules and develop new initiatives to improve corporate governance.

The White Paper on Corporate Governance in South East Europe exists in the following languages: Albanian , Bosnian/Croat/Serb , Bulgarian , English , Macedonian and Romanian .
The White Paper has been presented at a number of events in the region.

National and Regional Presentations

Recent Roundtable meetings:

Links to international entities and regional initiatives