Amidst current economic turmoil, the acceleration of the process of Western Balkan countries to join EU is currently considered as very critical. Possibly, the most important concern of the political and governmental leadership of these countries is the active development of all major sectors of the economy, which will provide the necessary boost for countries’ growth. In line with these considerations, INA Academy’s involvement, the South East Europe Telecommunication Academy based in Thessaloniki, provides tangible and valuable assistance in developing the Information Communication and Technology (ICT) sector, targeting the harmonization to European standards.

The fast growing sector of ICT is currently at the centre of attention of all regional governments, as further depicted by the continuous efforts of associated Ministries of Communication and National Regulatory Authorities (NRAs) to further develop the sector, by following best-practices applied in advanced countries. INA Academy, in coordination with the National Regulatory Authorities of Telecommunications and Electronic Communications of the Western Balkan countries (e.g. Bosnia & Herzegovina, Montenegro, Albania, Serbia, FYROM), has successfully organized a series of 10 educational workshops targeted to inform NRAs officials of the actions required in order to achieve national markets’ harmonization to the European regulatory framework. These activities are part of the collaboration framework between INA Academy and the Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs. The process of educating and informing Western Balkans’ officials is considered part of the overall development program, titled “Development, Support and Compilation of the institutional structures in the sector of Electronic Communications”, which is co-founded by the Hellenic Service of International Developmental Cooperation (Hellenic Aid).

INA Academy has successfully organized a set of eight workshops in all Western Balkan countries, during the period October 2008 – March 2009. The cycle of all Educational Workshops will be completed in Thessaloniki on 7th and 8th April, under the relevant subjects of “Cost of capital and introduction to economics of anti-competitive practices" and "Next Generation Network access & Voice over IP".

The workshops’ subject areas are related to the presentation and discussion of ways to achieve convergence of the national regulatory framework to the uniformly European legal and regulatory framework of the telecoms sector, closely following all the relevant EU directives. Among lecturers, there have been key representatives from both the industry and academia, with long standing European and international experience in subject-matter areas. A key characteristic of all the above events has been the high reported participation of representatives from Ministries, NRAs as well as national operators and service providers. Finally, it must be noted, that based on the outcome of the evaluation process conducted with the participants, all workshops have been characterized as truly successful, fully meeting expectations and needs of NRAs officials of the participating Western Balkan countries.