Special Co-ordinator Erhard Busek
Regional Table of the Stability Pact
We have heard a great deal this morning about regional development and aspirations, most of which I feel is quite encouraging. Much really has been accomplished in a relatively short period of time. We have also heard the critical focus the upcoming EU presidency plans to place on engaging South East Europe, culminating in the Thessaloniki Summit at the end of June.
However, we all know that there are still chronic challenges, which we must redouble our efforts to address. If anything, the improvements we have discussed and witnessed in the region have thrown these ongoing issues into sharper relief and ratcheted up the pressure for tangible progress. Moreover, the road on which we must travel together to make further progress will undoubtedly be neither smooth nor straight.
The premiere focus in this respect is that of the region’s evolving relationships with the EU. I think we would all agree, the EU’s Processes for Stabilization and Association along with Accession are the driving force for the stabilisation of the region. Let me be clear up front, that my firm intention remains to enhance the complementarity between the EU's processes, particularly the Stabilisation and Association Process and the Stability Pact. Progress that we can make on regional co-operation within the Stability Pact translates directly, in my view, to advancement of the SA process. I look forward, in advance of the Thessaloniki Summit in June 2003, to providing a report on how we can further strengthen that complementarity and reinforce cross-border between the countries of the region despite their status as either EU accession or associate states.
The Stability Pact is clearly one of the principal instruments available to meet ongoing challenges facing the region. I would like now to take some time and give you some specific ways in which that manifests itself.
2002 Achievables
First, let us look back and see what has been accomplished this year. We set out in the spring a list of achievables for the Stability Pact and these in large part have now been accomplished. These were indicative both of what the region could strive for and accomplish but also how and where the Stability Pact could make a meaningful contribution.
I am pleased to say that I think we have indeed reached our goals, to a large extent.
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The network of bilateral free trade agreements among the countries of South Eastern Europe is close to completion. Seventeen (Eighteen tbc) out of 21 agreements have been signed. The remaining three are under active negotiation and the countries concerned, Bosnia, Bulgaria, Romania and FRY have asked for a little more time to conclude. In view of the complex issues under discussion and the demands this places on small administrations, we have agreed to a limited extension to 31 January 2003. I urge all parties to approach the remaining negotiations with the necessary creativity and flexibility.
In the field of infrastructure, 23 out of 46 infrastructure projects with a total volume of 3,46 billion Euro have commenced physically on the ground. The South East European Regional Electricity Forum has also been launched.
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Regarding refugees, record numbers have returned in 2001 and 2002. Under the Stability Pact Refugee Return Initiative, sustainable solutions were successfully found for over 125,000 persons this year. As a freestanding initiative, it has mostly completed its work and the remainder will now be folded into a combined initiative making up one of our Core Objectives.
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In an attempt to streamline ongoing initiatives to fight organised crime, the Secretariat of the Stability Pact Organised Crime Initiative will be established at the Regional Crime Fighting Centre in Bucharest and start to fulfil the goals of the recent London Conference.
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A Small Arms and Light Weapons Clearinghouse (SEESAC) for the region was set up in Belgrade in May. The response in the region has been very supportive and the SEESAC has already developed substantive programmes.
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In close cooperation with High Representative Solana, who hosted the first informal round of regional principals in South Eastern Europe together with Commissioner Patten, I have launched a process of dialogue with UN Special Representative Steiner, High Representative Ashdown and other international representatives on sub-regional issues, which will now look to expand to include governments in the region.
We are looking forward to building on these successes in the next year.
Core Objectives
In order to provide a sturdier frame of reference for our ongoing work, the SP Secretariat in the autumn undertook an exhaustive and comprehensive review to look at all Stability pact activities to see whether they a) represented either a regional, EU or international priority and b) the Stability Pact was truly adding real value toward realizing them.
Following our review, we determined:-
Out of that process then flowed the Core Objectives, detailing thematic areas in which the SP should concentrate its work. These have been developed in close consultation with all our stakeholders, and we are grateful for the input received. From these Core Objectives we developed, the more ambitious achievables for 2003, outlined in the annexed document “Ensuring a more Effective Stability Pact”.
Thus, I see the primary emphasis of the Stability Pact’s future work on the following core objectives for 2003 and beyond:
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Local Democracy and Cross-Border Cooperation – Systematic cooperation of local actors (governmental, civic, and business), including across national borders must provide the underpinning to regional cooperation in SEE, with a view to enhancing economic convergence, social cohesion and reconciliation.
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Media - Continued efforts to enhance the position of independent media and standards of journalism in South Eastern Europe, through legislative reform, production of quality programs, start of a Fund for Television Production and increased strength of local institutions for journalism education.
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Infrastructure – Ensure that both the countries of the region and the international community take a regional strategic approach to developing the infrastructure of the region, including transport, energy and telecommunications, with a view to prioritising capital investment in order to benefit from economies of scale. We will also work for the full implementation of the Regional Electricity MOU.
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Trade and Investment –Support a business climate conducive to investment and trade, by following up on the implementation of the network of bilateral free trade agreements and using the monitoring process of the Investment Compact, thereby fostering capital and know-how transfer and thus the basis for sustainable economic development, which will provide increased business opportunities and employment in South Eastern Europe.
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Managing and stabilizing population movements – Adapt the strategies to address population movements in the region in a more comprehensive manner and thus rendering national action more effective in the areas of asylum, legal and illegal migration as well as border management. Supporting the phase-out of activities devoted solely to the humanitarian aspects of displacement issues.
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Organized crime – Support the region in developing joint instruments for effectively combating organized crime by making the regional centre for Organized Crime in Bucharest operational, completing the training to Europol standards as well as increasing the number of formal operational exchanges with Europol on organized crime investigations and building upon agreed measures directed towards combating human trafficking and corruption.
This then constitutes the fundamental basis for the Stability Pact. Accomplishments in these areas are what I want the reputation of the Stability Pact to be most closely associated with. And, when these issues are no longer so pressing or are being adequately handled by others, either internationally such as the EU, or within the region, such as by the SEECP, then we can say that the Stability Pact has fulfilled its task.
I want to point out that the Stability Pact for now will also continue to have an important role to play in other issues, which are listed in the draft Chairman’s conclusions in front of you. While I intend to shift resources to the core objectives, we must also keep some other processes and activities on track. These efforts with some staff support can continue to be very useful for our long-term objective of bringing self-sustaining stability to South Eastern Europe. This is especially true for security issues, such as trafficking in human beings and military security in cooperation with NATO and other institutions.
In other areas, we will be looking to wind up the Stability Pact’s involvement. It is not to say that these are not worthy issues, many of them are! It is just to put into practice what I think many of us realize: that the Stability Pact’s association with the activity brings no specific extra value, especially in line with agreed priorities for the region. I know this process is not easy, and for some it will be quite difficult. Nevertheless, if we are to carry through and focus the Stability Pact brand on bringing added value to things that really matter, we must be relentless in paring back in some areas. This process also will not always be so simple for the Secretariat and I think it may require a transitory period of extra effort on our part.
My focus has been on steering a course to this regional table and gaining your consent for this new approach to the Stability Pact. Early in the New Year, my team and I will turn our energies towards implementing these decisions, including fundamental adjustments on where we devote our resources. Many of you will have seen papers circulating from various Stability Pact affiliated Task Forces and Working Groups outlining their plans or objectives. These are all well thought out and ambitious plans, and our focus will now be to determine how exactly we can align these with our streamlined focus. Therefore, while I ask you to study their conclusions and ideas carefully, I will also want to look closely at what their resource implications may be. Especially as I am continually asked to reduce the staff and budget at the Secretariat.
Achievables
Next, I would like to turn to the achievables contained in the annexed document “Ensuring an Effective Stability Pact.” My original idea had been that the achievables for 2002 would suffice to demonstrate that we were now focussed on obtaining concrete results in priority areas. I had thought we would develop the Stability Pact’s principal themes through the Core Objectives and that would launch us into the New Year. Instead, what I have heard from many of you is that the 2002 achievables and their successfully accomplishment have so clearly conveyed the genuine potential of the Stability Pact that we should continue the exercise. This, we have now sought to do, in response to your requests.
The 2003 achievables we have outlined here in this document are different from 2002’s in several key respects: they are more detailed and more ambitious. In other ways, though, they are very much the same: they are realistic appraisals of what we think we can reasonably accomplish during the course of the year. They are NOT a comprehensive inventory of everything the Stability Pact will be working on during the year. These last two points are important and have been the basis for some misunderstandings over the past few weeks. Yes, they could be even more ambitious; yes they could be even more comprehensive; yes, they could be even more concrete, BUT, they would no longer be realistic or viable in terms of what we believe is feasible for us to achieve, or their achievement has little to do with our direct role. This is by necessity an exercise of ambition restrained by reality, particularly as concerns staff and money. I ask you to mull this perspective over a bit before our discussion begins and consider our limitations and constraints.
Working Methods
Finally, I would like to raise several points on working methods. Long before I became Special Coordinator, I was aware of the standard round of criticisms about the Pact; I may have even been the source for some of it. It runs along the lines of too many meetings with too little result. Part of this criticism, of course, especially in the beginning, was inevitable for an unproven and unprecedented initiative getting off the ground, but part of it was fully justified because of the possibility of some meetings being an excuse for inaction rather than a path to it.
Throughout my first year I have endeavoured to ensure that meetings under the Stability Pact are called only as necessary and with defined outcomes and plans of subsequent action firmly in view. I will be the first to say I have not always succeeded in this goal, but I think all would agree we have come a long way.
Now, I think it is time for us to tackle the most difficult of our processes, those meetings of the Working Tables themselves. Working Tables have been a very helpful tool in giving certain coherence to a whole range of initiatives. I have heard loud and clear your wish to preserve the essential structure of Working Tables and I am ready to comply. However, I think the time for individual multi-day sessions of each Working Table covering the full range of issues under its purview has passed – the international attention span has grown shorter and, more importantly, the issues can now stand on their own, as I think our Core Objectives amply demonstrate.
Therefore, I come today to seek your consent to bundle together the future sessions of the Working Tables and hold them in combination with the Regional Table. This will, I hope, shift our emphasis to ad hoc thematic meetings during the year.
Why do I propose this? Simply because I believe the rationale and the focus of future Working Table meetings should be based around their respective Core Objectives. None of us can any longer make much headway in our Capitals saying we travelled somewhere to a meeting of Working Table whatever. Now, we must be in a position to say we met together to move forward concrete major issues like regional trade, organized crime, or local democracy.
And, most importantly, we need to assure that this new visibility is also predominantly given to the region itself. This is so important because in my view, regional ownership then also means that our most directly affected participants, the countries in the region themselves, take the lead in preparing such conferences and also increase their stake in implementing their results.
I realize there is some lingering debate on exactly how these meetings will occur: sequentially or all together. I submit that this is an artificial and unnecessary discussion if we stay fixed on our goal of placing the substance of the issues over the form of the meeting. In this, I ask for your support.
These comments have now lasted far longer than I originally intended, but I believe it is important to clearly and unambiguously lay out the basis for the decisions I am asking you to improve here today. I invite you to join me now in a frank discussion.
Thank you.
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