Brussels - The last round of negotiations between Albania, Bulgaria, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia and The Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia, as well as representatives of UNMIK/Kosovo, was concluded yesterday evening (20 October) in Brussels after making substantial progress and breaking several deadlocks in areas such as agriculture, public procurement and the use of safeguard measures in the efforts to create a free trade area among the countries of South Eastern Europe.

The talks, chaired by the Stability Pact and hosted by the European Commission, were focused on the text of a new modernised trade agreement (known as CEFTA 2006) that harmonises trade rules across the region and incorporates new provisions such as trade in services, intellectual property rights, public procurement and investment promotion. The new agreement is fully in line with the rules of the World Trade Organisation and with the parties' obligations towards the EU and will replace the network of 32 bilateral agreements that currently govern trade relations in South Eastern Europe.

The parties have agreed to initial the agreement on 9 November, following the clarification of remaining technical issues. This initialling will allow for the signing ceremony to take place at the CEFTA Summit in Bucharest in mid December. The summit will be hosted by Romania, as the current Chair of CEFTA, and will be attended by all the Prime Ministers of the region, EU Commissioners and the Special Co-ordinator of the Stability Pact.

For further information, please contact Stability Pact's Spokesperson Mr Dragan Barbutovski at the SP Secretariat in Brussels(Tel: +32 2 401 87 25 or press@stabilitypact.org).
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PR2006/017