The European Parliament's delegation for relations with South-East Europe, (current name: Delegation for relations with Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, Montenegro and Kosovo - DSEE) was constituted on 17 November 1994, as the "successor" to the Delegation for relations with the Socialist Federal Republic of Yugoslavia, which had been functioning since 1981, then renamed delegation for relations with the republics of former Yugoslavia. It has been responsible for interparliamentary relations with five countries in South-East Europe, i.e. Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Federal Republic of Yugoslavia (then, State Union of Serbia-Montenegro and now the Republic of Serbia and the Republic of Montenegro), and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia.
Albania was included in a three-country delegation with Romania and Bulgaria between 1991 and 1994, when it became part of the Delegation for relations with South-East Europe.
In 2002, the European Parliament decided to initiate informal interparliamentary relations with Kosovo, official relations with the Parliamentary Assembly of Kosovo started in May 2008, following the declaration of independence of the province on 17 February 2008, and, since the European elections of 2004, Croatia and the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia were "separated" from the regional delegation, due to their new or announced status as candidate countries for accession to the EU and given new delegations to the respective Joint Parliamentary Committees.
The present inter-parliamentary relations with Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Kosovo have an annual cycle and are based on voluntary decisions, awaiting the entry into force of the various Stabilisation and Association Agreements (SAAs).
Relations with Albania and Montenegro have been upgraded in 2010 following the entry into force of the relevant SAAs and consequently Members of the European Parliament and Parliamentarians from Albania and Montenegro meet twice a year in separate Stabilisation and Association Parliamentary Committees. The relations with these two countries still fall within the responsibility of the D-SEE but each country has a separate Working Group consisting of the D-SEE members and chaired by the D-SEE chairperson.
