In Banja Koviljača, FR Yugoslavia, two meetings were held at September 15^th, and 16^th, 1998, organized by the Institute for Medicinal Plant Research ² Dr Josif Pančić² (IMPR), Belgrade. These meetings were organized with regard to the initiative to organize the I Conference on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of Southeast European Countries, postulated by several colleagues from the IMPR, Belgrade.

Following colleagues were present at these two meetings:

1. Stefan Nikolov, Faculty of Pharmacy, Sofia, Bulgaria
2. Tatyana Stoeva, Institute of Botany, BAS, Sofia, Bulgaria
3. Elena Genova, Institute of Botany, BAS, Sofia, Bulgaria
4. Maria Couladis, Division of Pharmacognosy, University of Athens, Greece
5. Roberto Della Loggia, Faculty of Pharmacy, Trieste, Italy
6. Svetlana Kulevanova, Faculty of Pharmacy, Skopje, FYR Macedonia
7. Venera Enescu, Institute for State Control for Drugs and Pharmaceutical Research "Petre Janescu Stoian", Bucharest, Romania
8. Ivan Salamon, Research Institute for Agroecology, Michalovce, Slovak Republic
9. Miroslav Haban, Faculty of Agriculture, Nitra, Slovak Republic
10. Štefan Jančo, Slovakofarma Co., Malacky, Slovak Republic
11. Dea Baričevič, Faculty of Biotechnology, Ljubljana, Slovenia
12. Janko Rode, Research Institute for Hope and Brewing, Žalec, Slovenia
13. Đorđe Gatarić, Institute of Agriculture, Banja Luka, Republic of Srpska
14. Dragana Sekulović, IMPR ²Dr Josif Pančić² , Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia
15. Mihailo Ristić, IMPR ² Dr Josif Pančić² , Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia
16. Dragoja Radanović, IMPR ² Dr Josif Pančić² , Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia
17. Dejan Brkić, IMPR ² Dr Josif Pančić² , Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia
18. Srboljub Maksimović, IMPR ² Dr Josif Pančić² , Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia
19. Slobodan Dražić, IMPR ² Dr Josif Pančić² , Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia
20. Miroslav Kostić, IMPR ²Dr Josif Pančić² , Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia
21. Jan Kišgeci, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia
22. Marina Cvetković, Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Belgrade, Yugoslavia
23. Nada Kovačević, Faculty of Pharmacy, Belgrade, Yugoslavia
24. Petar Marin, Faculty of Biology, Belgrade, Yugoslavia
25. Miodrag Jakovljević, Faculty of Agriculture, Zemun, FR Yugoslavia
26. Slobodan Milosavljević, Faculty of Chemistry, Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia
27. Milan Martinov, Faculty of Technical Sciences, Novi Sad, FR Yugoslavia
28. Adamović Dušan, Institute for Field and Vegetable Crops, Novi Sad, FR Yugoslavia
29. Zora Dajić, Faculty of Agriculture, Zemun, FR Yugoslavia
30. Svetlana Antić-Mladenović, Faculty of Agriculture, Zemun, FR Yugoslavia
31. Tatjana Marković, IMPR ² Dr Josif Pančić² , Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia
32. Milena Mihajlov, IMPR ² Dr Josif Pančić² , Belgrade, FR Yugoslavia
33. Katarina Petrović, Pharmaceutical and Chemical Industry ²Zdravlje², Leskovac, FR Yugoslavia
34. Hans-Peter Schieffer, Hewlett-Packard GmbH, Wienna, Austria

In active discussion during these two meeting following colleagues gave their contribution: D. Sekulović, D. Radanović, M. Ristić, D. Brkić, I. Salamon, J. Kišgeci, S. Nikolov, T. Stoeva, S. Kulevanova, E. Genova, D. Baričevič, M. Couladis, V. Enescu, M. Martinov, R. Della Loggia and Hans-Peter Schiffer. All participants of the meetings have reached consensus on following.

• The main idea about having such a Conference has been fully accepted.
• To organize The First Conference on Medicinal and Aromatic Plants of Southeast European Countries.
• For the date and place of the First Conference to be held in October 11-16^th, 1999., in Belgrade, Yugoslavia.
• The Conference should be kept every second year.
• The choice of the host-county for each Conference should be made according to common manner (rule of rotation). Host should be the country belonging to the region of Southeast Europe.
• Official language should be English.
• The conference should be open for participants from all other countries
• The main topics for the First Conference will be: preservation and sustainable use of biological resources, mapping of the natural recourses of medicinal and aromatic plants, breeding and seed production, cultivation, etnobotany, etnomedicine, phytochemistry, pharmacology and toxicology, industrial processing, biotechnology, quality control and standardization, and economic aspects of medicinal and aromatic plants of the Southeast European region.
• The participants agreed for the main topics to be wide profiled, so that it will enable the presence of scientists and professionals from all the fields relevant to medicinal and aromatic plants (such as biologist, agronomist, phytochemists, pharmacist, as well as the others). Also, it was stressed that the main topic of the further Conferences could be more in specific, determined according to one or two specific subjects, after the Conference itself get more affirmed.
• The other countries from this region and surroundings, that were not present at these two meetings held in Banja Koviljača, are welcomed to give their active contribution to the organization and working part of the further Conferences.
• The Conference will be organized at first, like a scientific and professional gathering. However, it would be very useful for the various companies dealing with aromatic and medicinal plants to be included in its future work as accompanying activities.
• The participants have accepted to try to acquire some financial support from their countries as well as from some other resources available. (Yugoslav part, as the organizer of the First Conference has informed the other participants that the Government of its country has promised to help in supporting the organization of this meeting).
• The following structure of the working bodies of the Conference to be established was accepted: Program committee, Scientific committee, Organizing committee, and Executive committee.
• The proposed idea to organize a Regional Association of the scientist and professionals working with aromatic and medicinal was accept too.
• The participants have common opinion that the Conference should not include official representatives of their countries in its organization, but the scientists and professionals that are willing to give their contribution.
• The participants that did not submit the list of proposed candidates from their countries to be included in working bodies of The First Conference will have to do it at least until the end of September 1998. The proposed candidates as well as the candidates already included in the list should submit their full curriculum vitae within the same dead line, to the IMPR, Belgrade, by mail.