MEDIA ADVISORY
Brussels, 4 April 2006
South East Europe Summit – Integrating Europe through Regional Free Trade
Date: 6 April 2006 – Bucharest (Romania)
Venue: Parliament Palace (Entrance C )
Contact / further information: Stability Pact's Spokesperson Mr Dragan Barbutovski
(Tel: +32-2-4018725 or +32-498-982984, press@stabilitypact.org)
Ms Oana Marinescu, Spokeswoman of the Romanian Government (Tel: +40-21-3181156, purtator_de_cuvant@gov.ro )
Ms Ana Dinescu, Office of the Spokesperson ofthe Romanian Government (Mobile: +40-741-278749, ana.dinescu@gov.ro,)
THEME OF THE MEETING
On 6 April, one of the Stability Pact’s long-standing objectives (repeatedly endorsed by the European Union) – the creation of a single Free Trade Agreement in South Eastern Europe (SEE) – will receive a strong political boost. The Prime Ministers of Albania (Mr Sali Berisha), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Mr Adnan Terzic), Bulgaria (Mr Sergei Stanishev), Croatia (Mr Ivo Sanader), Moldova (Mr Vasile Tarlev), Romania (Mr Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu), Serbia and Montenegro (represented by Mr Vojislav Kostunica and Mr Milo Djukanovic, as well as Mr Vuk Draskovic)and The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (Mr Vlado Buckovski) andrepresentatives of UNMIK (Mr Soren Jessen-Petersen) will meet in Bucharest at the invitation of the Romanian Prime Minister Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu and the Special Co-ordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe Erhard Busek, to politically launch the negotiations to achieve the single Free Trade Agreement through the simultaneous enlargement and amendment of CEFTA – the Central Europe Free Trade Agreement. This high-level meeting will be attended by the Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn and Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson, reflecting the strong support of the EU for this regional initiative. Chancellor Wolfgang Schuessel of Austria, which holds the Presidency of the European Council, current President of the European Council, is also planning to attend.
PROGRAMME
10.45 Arrival of Heads of Delegations – greeting by HE Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, Prime Minister of Romania, and Erhard Busek, Special Co-ordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe
10.55 Family Photo of Heads of Delegations
11.00 Welcome Address
HE Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, Prime Minister of Romania
11.20 Opening Remarks
HE Wolfgang Schuessel, Prime Minister of Austria
HE Olli Rehn, Commissioner for Enlargement and HE Peter Mandelson Commissioner for Trade
Dr Erhard Busek, Special Co-ordinator, Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe
11.50 Statements from Negotiating Parties
Albania
Bosnia and Herzegovina
Bulgaria
Croatia
Moldova
Romania
Serbia and Montenegro
Serbia
Montenegro
The former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia
UNMIK/Kosovo
13.00 Adoption of Joint Declaration on the Key Principles Underpinning the Negotiations
13.10 Closing Statement
HE Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, Prime Minister of Romania
13.15 Press Conference
For an updated programme please visit: http://www.stabilitypact.org/pages/events/detail.asp?y=2006&p=282
PRESS CONFERENCE
The press conference will take place on Thursday, 6 April 2006 at 13:20 in the Parliament Palace. The press conference will be conducted in English with the following panellists:
The Romanian Prime Minister, Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu
The Austrian Prime Minister Wolfgang Schuessel
Special Co-ordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe Erhard Busek
Enlargement Commissioner Olli Rehn
Trade Commissioner Peter Mandelson
ACCREDITATION
The Press Office of the Romanian Government handles Media Accreditation. Due to security procedures, please send them your contact details by Monday, April 3rd, 2006 at 12.30 (name, media organisation, e-mail and phone, press card number, a jpeg format photo, official assignment letter from the editor) to purtator_de_cuvant@gov.ro. For more information, please contact the Romanian Government Press Office (Tel: +40-21-3181141, +40-21-3181156).
BACKGROUND
The political launch of the negotiations, which are taking place at the invitation of the Romanian Prime Minister Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu as the President of CEFTA, is the culmination of detailed exploratory talks that have been taking place under the auspices of the Stability Pact’s Trade Working Group on how best to fulfil the mandate given by the SEE Trade Ministers in Sofia in June 2005 to develop a single free trade agreement for the region to replace the network of 31 bilateral Free Trade Agreements put in place over the past few years.
While these agreements have improved the overall trade regime in the region, the sheer number of agreements has resulted in a bureaucratic “jungle” for business people who want to trade and invest in this region and for government agencies such as customs who seek to facilitate trade but who must try to obey 31 sets of rules.
In following the mandate given by the South Eastern Europe Trade Ministers to develop a single free trade agreement for the region, the Trade Working Group of the Stability Pact had to address (i) the content of such an agreement to ensure that it would be an inclusive, modern and ambitious agreement and (ii) the process by which such an agreement would be achieved. There has been broad agreement on the first issue and the Group has worked hard to prepare a draft illustrative text that the Parties can use as the basis for their negotiations. The second issue generated considerable debate as to whether it would be better to have a new agreement or to enlarge the Central Europe Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) to which some countries were already members. : In looking at this second option, the Group had two initial concerns:
Firstly, the membership criteria: CEFTA membership originally stipulated that a member of CEFTA has to be a member of the World Trade Organisation and that it must have institutionalised relations with the EU. This would have ruled out several SEE countries/territories. This issue was resolved following the CEFTA meeting of Prime Ministers in November last year. Membership criteria are now inclusive but still demand high standards of trade policy.
Secondly, the procedures required to accede to CEFTA: the current accession procedure is very bureaucratic and time consuming for both the applicants and the current members. Given that all the countries are involved in many negotiations (accession to the EU, Stabilisation and Association Agreement, WTO), the Trade Working Group requested that CEFTA countries consider greatly simplifying their procedures so that there could be a simultaneous group enlargement and immediate amendment of the text in the course of 2006 (to meet the ministerial request).
At the last meeting of the Trade Working Group in February in Berlin, the proposal for a simplified simultaneous enlargement and amendment of CEFTA was officially presented by Romania, the current CEFTA President, and welcomed by both the countries of the region and the international community.
What will happen in Bucharest?
At the political launch of the trade negotiations in Bucharest on 6 April, the South Eastern European countries and territories will, at the highest level, publicly commit themselves to:
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achieving a single FTA through the simultaneous enlargement and amendment of CEFTA
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the key principles of agreement that will underpin the agreement – i.e. that it will be an inclusive, modern and ambitious agreement
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a timetable for the launch and conclusion of negations that will take place under the auspices of the Stability Pact’s Trade Working Group.
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PA2006/004
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