VI. Advocacy and partnerships — fees had been reduced; — expiry dates on documents had been removed; — residence had been registered even if not formal; — co-operation between stakeholders had been established between government institutions, civil society organizations and UNHCR; and — cases of successful civil registration had been reported thanks to legal aid provided by civil society organizations. These steps contributed to undocumented and stateless persons acquiring or confirming nationality. Good practices were also identified as part of regional projects in South-Eastern Europe, including ODIHR’s Project on Best Practices for Roma Integration. However, the lack of systemic solutions and a comprehensive approach to addressing the issue of civil registration, documentation, and statelessness as well as inconsistent implementation of existing laws were noted as persistent challenges.146 The legal and administrative frameworks in the region remained excessively complex. Among others, the Co-Chairs remained concerned that undocumented people were often required to cross borders to retrieve documents from the country they had left, which further complicated their access to identity documents. The Conclusions were communicated to all participants with a suggested time-frame for measures to be taken. Progress would be reviewed in the context of the country-specific Social Inclusion Seminars on Roma Issues held between the European Commission and EU candidate and potential candidate countries. In April 2014, as follow-up to the stock-taking exercise, joint letters by the European Commission, the HCNM and UNHCR were addressed to the governments concerned with country-specific recommendations and requests to provide detailed information based on a concrete list of questions. These questions pertained to the legal framework for the provision of civil status documentation and/ or nationality; the establishment of a national co-ordination mechanism; administrative procedures; identification of the population; and planned measures and initiatives to enhance access to civil registration and documentation. 90