Date: November 17 - 19, 2004 

Venue:  Aleksandar Palace Hotel, Skopje –Ul. Marsal Tito Br 11a, Skopje
            (Tel.: +389 2 3092-392, Fax: +389 2 3092-152, E-mail: info@aleksandarpalace.com.mk)

Press briefings/statements:  

At the conference venue at the Aleksandar Palace Hotel on Friday, 19 November 2004: 

9:00 – 10:45           Opening part of the Regional Table meeting (open for media) with opening address by Acting Prime Minister Radmila Šekerinska and keynote address by Member of the European Parliament György Schöpflin 

10.45                      Press conference given by Stability Pact Special Co-ordinator Erhard Busek, Foreign Minister Ilinka Mitreva and new Chair of Working Table I (Democratisation and Human Rights) Goran Svilanović 

There will also be the following briefings by those chairing the thematic Working Tables on
Thursday, November 18, 2004: 

12:00           Working table III (Security)

Participating: Janez Premože, Chair, Working Table III, Trpe B. Stojanovski, Co-Chair, Working Table III, Pieter Verbeek, Director, Working Table III

13:00           Working Table II (Economic Reconstruction and Development)

Participating: Fabrizio Saccomanni, Chair, Working Table II and Bernard Snoy, Director, Working Table II

16:15            Working Table I (Democratisation and Human Rights)  

Participating: Goran Svilanović, Chair, Working Table I, Philip Blair, Council of Europe and Michel Peretti, European Commission

For a full list of topic please consult: http://www.stabilitypact.org/rt/041117-index.html

Contact/ further information:           Stability Pact’s Spokesperson Dragan Barbutovski
                                                   (+32 2 4018725  or +32 498 982984, press@stabilitypact.org) 

Accreditation  is being handled by the host government via the Agency for Information 
                    (Tel/Fax: +389 2 3117401).  

Updates, agendas and background notes: http://www.stabilitypact.org/rt/041117-index.html 

BACKGROUND

The Stability Pact's twice-yearly Regional Table is its highest decision-making forum.   It will be opened by Acting Prime Minister Radmila Šekerinska and addressed, inter alia, by Foreign Minister Ilinka Mitreva, UN Special Representative in Kosovo Soren Jessen-Petersen, EU Special Representative in Skopje Michael Sahlin and Foreign Ministers Miodrag Vlahović (Montenegro) and Andrei Stratan (Moldova).  

Others taking part include representatives of South Eastern European governments, EU Member States, Norway, Switzerland, the US, the European Commission and the European Council, the United Nations Mission in Kosovo, OSCE, Council of Europe, OECD, World Bank, IMF and EBRD.

A keynote address on parliamentary cooperation will be given by the distinguished Hungarian writer and politician, current Member of the European Parliament and former Jean Monnet Professor of Politics and Director of the Centre for the Study of Nationalism at the School of Slavonic and East European Studies of the University College London György Schöpflin.

The meeting of the Regional Table will be preceded by two days of theme-focused Working Table meetings where issues of Democratisation and Human Rights (Working Table I), Economic Reconstruction and Development (Working Table II) and Security (Working Table III) will be discussed.