Zagreb — A decisive step of the transformation of the internationally led Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe into the regionally owned Regional Co-operation Council (RCC) was made today (10 May) when the Regional Table of the Stability Pact endorsed the nominations of the RCC’s first Secretary General and the seat of the RCC Secretariat, and adopted the RCC Statute.
Decisions to endorse the nominations of Mr Hido Biscevic, currently State Secretary at the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and European Integration of Croatia, to be the RCC’s first Secretary General, and of Sarajevo as the host of the RCC Secretariat came unanimously, showing “the region’s European behaviour”, Special Co-ordinator of the Stability Pact Erhard Busek said, noting that the nominations were put forward by the countries of the region in a constructive manner.
The RCC, successor to the Stability Pact, will bring together SEECP Participating States and UNMIK/Kosovo, together with the European Union and the wider international donor community, thus preserving the character of the Pact’s Regional Table, a unique setting where the region and the international community co-operate on an equal footing. The RCC will therefore take over the key tasks of the SP in facilitating regional co-operation, supporting the European and Euro-Atlantic integration efforts of the region and at the same time being a forum for continued involvement of the donor community; all of that under the leadership of the region itself.
“It is now up to countries of the region to fill this RCC with life, to make it a success story and thereby show that South Eastern Europe is a different region today than it was in the 1990s. This will require the commitment of all South East European parties and any divisions will not only damage the process but the image of the region as a whole,” Special Co-ordinator Busek said in his opening address.
In order to handover to the RCC a coherent and sustainable set of co-operation processes in priority areas, the Stability Pact is continuing the process of streamlining and building ownership in the Stability Pact’s task forces and initiatives. “Success will require the commitment of the individual task forces and initiatives as well as the countries of the region,” Busek said while presenting the Streamlining Report to the SP stakeholders.
The fashion in which the SEECP states have come to consensus on the Statute of the RCC, the nomination process for the Secretary General as well as the Seat of the RCC Secretariat are very promising, Busek said. “This constructive and co-operative engagement of the countries of the region as well as those international partners, which have agreed to continue to support the process in the future, has been very promising for the future spirit of the RCC.”
Until February 2008, when the formal hand-over from the Stability Pact to the RCC will take place, the new Secretary General of the RCC (which still needs to be formally approved by the SEECP Foreign Ministers and confirmed by the SEESP Heads of State or Government on 11 May) and the Special Co-ordinator will work together to ensure that the Stability Pact’s achievements are preserved and that the transition to the new framework is as smooth as possible.
Additional Information:
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For further information, please contact Stability Pact's Spokesperson Mr Alessandro Rotta at the SP Secretariat in Brussels (Tel: +32 2 401 87 07 or press@stabilitypact.org).
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PR2007/007
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