At a meeting in Brussels of over 40 Stability Pact Co-ordinators of the Member States of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe 30 September 2002, its Co-ordinator Erhard Busek reviewed progress on the six priorities for 2002. He expressed satisfaction with progress in four of them, reminding SEE Governments that he counted on their active support to also fulfil the remaining two targets.

Out of the six Stability Pact achievables for the Year 2002, Erhard Busek was pleased with progress on refugees, cross-border co-operation, small arms and light weapons and organized crime. He mentioned the Organised Crime Fighting Centre in Bucharest, the Small Arms Reduction Clearinghouse in Belgrade and the record numbers of returnees in 2002, especially in Bosnia. He also mentioned the upcoming London Conference on Organised Crime as an example of the synergies created in addressing this issue on the global and regional level. In the areas of energy, particularly electricity, and free trade he outlined to Governments of SEE, that overall progress has been made but a last effort was needed before the year comes to a close.

On Free Trade Busek stated his dedication to completing the remaining free trade agreements, which have yet to be signed. Amongst the seven countries, which committed themselves to the task, a total of 19 agreements have been signed or are under negotiation. The final two negotiations, which need to be launched in order to have all 21 agreements by end of 2002 involve Bulgaria, Albania and Bosnia-Herzegovina. Busek reported that the Bulgarian Government has given the go-ahead for these outstanding negotiations to begin. Busek has also recently urged Romania to intensify the pace of its outstanding negotiations. He reiterated his plea to honour the commitments given in the Memorandum of Understanding in June 2001, also for the sake of credibility and the image of the region.

In the domain of creating a Regional Electricity Market and its eventual integration into the EU Market, Busek explained the ambitious roadmap, which included the signing of a Memorandum of Understanding in Athens on 15 November 2002. The aim is to gradually liberalise the electricity market in line with EU legislation, so that the SEE market can ultimately be incorporated in that of Western Europe. By signing the Memorandum, SEE Governments will have to move quickly in transforming production and transmission entities into legally independent units with own accounting, Busek explained. He invited Governments to creatively think about merging such bodies where needed or to split them up into competing subcomponents. If this can be convincingly done, Busek concluded, donors will be willing to finance the necessary investments in infrastructure and human resources.