Brussels — Meeting in Brussels yesterday (12 May), South Eastern Europe's ministers in charge of coordinating anticorruption activities endorsed a Declaration to curb corruption.

Through this Declaration, the governments of Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, pledge to implement ten measures to curb corruption.  The document was also signed by Erhard Busek, the Special Co-ordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe and Ugo Draetta, Chairman of the Stability Pact 's Anti-Corruption Initiative (SPAI).

The conference was held at the European Parliament in Brussels, providing an opportunity for the ministers to send a strong political signal of their commitment to reform. Among others, the conference was also addressed by European Commissioner Franco Frattini, which underscored the European Union’s supportive position.The ministers acknowledged that unless large-scale corruption is curbed, the economic progress of the region would be seriously impeded.   They committed themselves to ensuring that SPAI's senior representatives receive the necessary political support and the adequate human and financial resources in the future, and agreed to ensure that reforms take place in the area of public procurement, business operations and investment climate.  They also stated that they would organise public debates on the topic with the participation of the business community, NGOs, academic institutions and professional associations.

In the Declaration, the ministers asserted that the SPAI Regional Secretariat Liaison Office has had a key role in the process of conveying leadership and ownership of the Anti-Corruption Initiative toward the countries of the region.

Full text of the Declaration is available at

http://www.stabilitypact.org/anticorruption/WTIIIdeclaration%20SPAISP%20version.pdf

For more information, please consult SPAI RSLO - web site http://spai-rslo.org/new.asp or contact Mr Cornel Calinescu (tel. +387 33 550-220, e-mail calinescucv@lol.ba)