On Saturday Balkan leaders met to discuss the Stability in South-Eastern Europe in the 21st Century. This meeting was the sixth of its kind in Salzburg.

It brought together Prime Ministers Ivo Sanader of Croatia,Sali Berisha of Albania,Zeljko Sturanovic of Montenegro and Vasile Tarlev of Moldova as well as Austrian Chancellor Alfred Gusenbauer, Austrian foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik and the Special Co-ordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, Erhard Busek.

Commenting on the Salzburg meeting, Special Co-ordinator Busek said: “It was a very pragmatic meeting aimed at raising awareness on a number of pressing problems, such as energy, the Danube and visa facilitation. The forthcoming Energy Ministerial meeting on 28 November will hopefully move ahead in defining concrete investment projects with a cross-border dimension. On the Danube a consensus evolved on the importance to embark on concrete steps for the development of this key development axis.”

Ursula Plassnik praised the increasing co-operation between the South-Eastern European countries and the European Union in the past year and emphasised the progress made on implementation of the Salzburg declaration of spring 2006 and recent bilateralh Moldova where a joint visa application office has been established. "Visa freedom does not come free of charge," Foreign Minister Ursula Plassnik noted. She also claimed that reforms should not be implemented "only as a favour to he EU."

The meeting also touched on the ratification and subsequent implementation of the CEFTA 2006 agreement, the role of the future Regional Co-operation Council, which is expected to replace the Stability Pact in early 2008 and other issues such as closer economic ties, education policies and steps towards EU integration. 

 

For further information, please contact Stability Pact's Spokesperson
Mr Georgi Gotev at the SP Secretariat in Brussels
(Tel: +32 2 401 87 25 or press@stabilitypact.org).
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PR2007/012