The General Assembly of the Assembly of the the European regions was held in Vienna from 24 till 26 November 2004. The Assisstant to the Provincial Secretary in charge of regional and international cooperation in the Executive Council of AP Vojvodina, Barbara Avdalović, also attended this meeting.
The topics of this year's General Assembly included European and international development trends with focus on the importance of regional cooperation and the new European Parliament as the potential partner of the regions. New AER President was elected, Dr Ricardo Illi, the President of the Autonomous Province Friuli-Venezia-Giulia with which AP Vojvodina signed Cooperation Agreement. Ivan Jakovčić, the County head of the Istra County with which AP Vojvodina has long-standing good relations, was elected Vicepresident.
The Assembly was addressed by Liese Prokop, the former President of AER; Ervin Prol, the Premier of Lower Austria; Klaus Klipp, the Secretary General of AER; the newly elected President and Vicepresidents. All speakers pointed out the significance of further developing regional partnerships and the importance of promoting the multiculturality and multilingualism.
During the first day of the conference, in addition to electing new President and Vicepresident, several interregional round tables were organized. They represented an opportunity to exchange useful information and opinions between member regions. The topics were general in nature and related primarily to various fields of services of general interest.
Work reports were produced by all AER Committees (Committee A, B, C and D). Reports on the programs Centurio, EURODYSSEE and AER Summer School, which took place during 2004 in Olomouc region (Czech Republic), were also submitted.
On the second day of the session, a round table was held with the topic 'The European Parliament – partner of the regions?''. On that occassion, the Assembly was addressed by four members of the European Parliament who stressed the significance of the regions. They also talked about problems facing the European Parliament. A new instrument (new form of using structural funds) introduced by the EU to replace the existing INTERREG program was also discussed.
Prior to concluding the session the Assembly adopted the Final Declaration.

Attending the General Assembly of AER was used for numerous bilateral talks with AER memeber regions with which Vojvodina has Cooperation Agreements.
Representatives of the Olomouc Region (Czech Republic, Jitka Brabcova, Head of the Department for International Cooperation, and Renata Skrobalkova) offered AP Vovodina to participate in a joint presentation next year in Brussels. This would be an excellent opportunity to present economic and cultural characteristics of our region to other EU members.
Contact was established with representatives of Sarajevo Canton (Enisa Demić, office of the Prime Minister) which was given the title Euroregion of the Year 2006 together with Vojvodina. Mutual willingness for joint cooperation and coordination concerning this issue was expressed. Contact was also established with representatives of Zenica-Doboj Canton BIH (Đenana Čolaković, International Cooperation Adviser), in BIH with Herzeg-Bosnia Canton and Tuzlanski Canton, as well as with Istarski County and Dubrovačko-Neretvanski County in the Republic of Croatia.
The Assembly was also attended by the representatives of the Self-governing Region of Trnava (the Slovak Republic) with which AP Vojvodina has a signed Cooperation Agreement. Mrs Miloslava Baranikova, the Manager of the Department for International Cooperation, expressed wishes for further cooperation and more concrete implementation of the Agreement. For our part, we expressed our wish to participate in joint projects, taking into account the accession of Slovakia to the EU in May 2004.
Mr Dino Elezović from the Department for International Cooperation of Zurich Canton in Switzerland, presented an invitation to the representatives of the Executive Council of AP Vojvodina to participate in the Centurio Conference with a topic concerning regional economic development and which is to be held in Zurich from 17 till 22 January 2005.