The first official meeting of the Expert Working Group took place on 6 March in Belgrade, Serbia on the margins of the 6th Annual Ministerial Conference on Cooperation in the Field of Border Security in Southeast Europe. Representatives from Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro and Serbia attended the EWG meeting. Observers from the Federal Office of Police of Switzerland, the General Secretariat of the Council of the European Union, the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe, the Southeast European Cooperative Initiative Regional Centre for Combating Trans-border Crime and the Federal Criminal Police Office of Germany also attended. Among the invited participants DCAF and Austria were represented. At this meeting the Convention Depositary country (Albania) reported on the accession of Bulgaria. Mr. Anton Travner as the Acting Head of the Secretariat presented the state of play regarding the Memorandum of Understanding (proposed text and proposal regarding the signature). He also presented the draft Action plan, the draft Communication strategy, the draft Rules of Procedure and the draft Work programme for 2009. Ms. Ajda Mav further presented the state of play regarding the PCC SEE Secretariat’s home page and graphic design, whereas Mr. Thomas Pepper presented the draft PCC SEE Manual. Mr. Kurt Hager from the Ministry of Interior of the Republic of Austria presented the situation regarding the preparation for the 3rd Police Cooperation meeting. At the EWG meeting the main ideas regarding the Mutual evaluation in the area of Data Protection and ideas regarding the system of Exchange of Information were also presented.