• Adriatic Charter. The Adriatic Charter, an initiative in the spirit of the 1998 U.S.-Baltic Charter, was proposed jointly by the Presidents of Albania, Croatia, and Macedonia to President Bush at the NATO Prague Summit in November 2002. The Charter underlines Albania's, Croatia's, and Macedonia's dedication to strengthening their individual and cooperative efforts to intensify and hasten domestic reforms that enhance the security, prosperity, and stability of the region. US DoS Factsheet available at http://www.state.gov/p/eur/rls/fs/51348.htm

• European Union. The EU is the result of a process of cooperation and integration which began in 1951 between six countries (Belgium, Germany, France, Italy, Luxembourg and the Netherlands). After nearly fifty years, with four waves of accessions (1973: Denmark, Ireland and the United Kingdom; 1981: Greece; 1986: Spain and Portugal; 1995: Austria, Finland and Sweden), the EU today has fifteen Member States and is preparing for its fifth enlargement, this time towards Eastern and Southern Europe: http://europa.eu.int/

- Frontex. Based in Warsaw and intelligence driven, Frontex is the EU agency created as a specialised and independent body tasked to coordinate the operational cooperation between Member States in the field of border security: http://www.frontex.europa.eu/

- EUFOR. On 2 December 2004 the European Union launched a military operation in Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH) - (EUFOR – Operation ALTHEA). This followed the decision by NATO to conclude its SFOR mission: http://www.euforbih.org/

- EUROPOL. Europol is the European Union law enforcement organisation that handles criminal intelligence. Its mission is to assist the law enforcement authorities of Member States in their fight against serious forms of organised crime: http://www.europol.europa.eu/

• North Atlantic Treaty Organisation. NATO is an alliance of 26 countries from North America and Europe committed to fulfilling the goals of the North Atlantic Treaty, which was signed on 4 April 1949: http://www.nato.int/

- Allied Command Transformation: http://www.act.nato.int/

- NATO’s assistance to Iraq: http://www.nato.int/issues/iraq-assistance/

- The Kosovo Force (KFOR): http://www.nato.int/kfor/

- Stabilisation Force (SFOR) in Bosnia and Herzegovina: http://www.nato.int/sfor/

• Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe. OSCE is a regional security organization whose 55 participating States are from Europe, Central Asia and North America. The OSCE has been established as a primary instrument for early warning, conflict prevention, crisis management and post-conflict rehabilitation under Chapter VIII of the Charter of the United Nations. The OSCE addresses a wide range of security-related issues including arms control, preventive diplomacy, confidence- and security building measures, human rights, election monitoring and economic and environmental security: http://www.osce.org/

- Activities > Policing. The organization has police advisers and police assistance programmes in several missions. Activities include police education and training, community policing and administrative and structural reforms. http://www.osce.org/activities/13046.html

- Activities > Military reform. Practical activities to assist States in reforming their legislation; downsizing and/or conversion of their armies; training personnel on the rights of the servicemen and humanitarian law; and other areas related to military reform are conducted by the OSCE field operations, such as the Mission to Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Mission to Serbia and Montenegro, as well as the Conflict Prevention Centre (CPC). http://www.osce.org/activities/13044.html