Special Co-ordinator Erhard Busek welcomed the start of a structured dialogue between Belgrade and Pristina, announced by UNMIK to start mid-October in Vienna, as a most welcome development with great potential for additional stability in South Eastern Europe.  From the Stability Pact point of view, Busek underlined the importance that the dialogue focuses on practical issues. Topics to be mentioned in this context are energy (electricity), transport, free trade and returns.  By addressing practical issues of everyday concern, the dialogue will have a real perspective to yield results of mutual benefit and thereby to add stability to a crucial part of the region. The Stability Pact commends SRSG Harri Holkeri for his facilitating role in this context.

Within the Stability Pact’s working structures, Kosovo is incorporated through UNMIK and already participates actively in several of the Pact’s initiatives.  With a gradual and increasing involvement over time, UNMIK is  by now part of the ongoing efforts to establish a free trade zone in South Eastern Europe, it is involved in the Stability Pact’s fighting organized crime structures and it is part of the Athens process, designed to create an integrated electricity market in South Eastern Europe.  Special Coordinator Busek reiterated that the structures and instruments of the Stability Pact are standing ready to assist the upcoming dialogue for tapping expertise, use existing working level contacts and contacts to regional actors and the international community.