Erhard Busek will use an invitation by the Swedish Minister for Foreign Affairs Anna Lindh to Stockholm to establish his first contact with the Swedish Government in his new capacity as Stability Pact Co-ordinator. He will meet Foreign Minister Lindh, Mr Jan O. Karlsson, Minister for International Development Co-operation, Asylum Policy and Migration, Ms Gun-Britt Andersson, State Secretary for International Development Co-operation, Migration and Asylum Policy as well as with Mr Per Sjögren, Director-General for Migration and with Ambassador Nils Eliasson at the Ministry for Foreign Affairs on 5 March 2002.
The Special Coordinator will also deliver a keynote speech on "The future of the Stability Pact" at the Swedish Institute of International Affairs at 15:30 h, Lilla Nygatan 23 (Old Town), Tel: +46-8-234060. Journalists are welcome to attend this event.
As of 1 January 2002, Erhard Busek, a former Vice-Chancellor of Austria, succeeded Bodo Hombach as Special Co-ordinator of the Stability Pact for Southeastern Europe and the Southeast Cooperative Initiative (SECI).
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What is the Stability Pact?
The Pact is a political initiative to encourage and strengthen co-operation between the countries of South Eastern Europe as well as to streamline existing efforts for assisting South Eastern Europe’s political, economic and security integration in Europe. The Pact does not implement the projects, which were placed under its auspices during the First regional Funding Conference of March 2000. It is an instrument to co-ordinate and possibly accelerate the projects of all its partners, such as the European Commission, NATO and OSCE, the International Financial Institutions, the member states of the European Union, other Stability Pact members such as the United States, Russia, Hungary, Canada, Norway, Switzerland, The Czech Republic, Poland, Slovakia, as well as all the countries of South Eastern Europe and their neighbours.
Under the Regional Table, its steering body, the Stability Pact has
3 Working Tables:
- Working Table I is dealing with Democratisation & Human Rights;
- Working Table II with Economic Reconstruction, Development and Co-operation;
- Working Table III with Security (one Sub-table Security and Defence, one Sub-table Justice and Home Affairs).
So far, two Regional Conferences have taken place with the most recent one on 25 and 26 October 2001 in Bucharest. On this event, ministers and high level officials from 37 countries and 32 international organisations renewed their commitment to long term economic and social development for South Eastern Europe. A new set of 27 infrastructure projects secured donor financing of € 2.4 bn.
(For full list, see: http://www.seerecon.org/Calendar/2001/Events/src/isg_report.pdf)
At a first Funding Conference in Brussels on 30 March 2000, € 2,4 bn were raised, which translated in the so-called Quick Start Package, with a total of 244 regional projects. By early 2002, 94% of these projects were started, making it one of the fastest assistance packages by the international community. (For full list, see: http://www.stabilitypact.org/stabilitypactcgi/catalog/cat_descr.cgi?prod_id=73— One Year Progress Report on the Quick Start Package.)
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