Esteemed Speakers of Parliament, Your Excellencies, Honored Guests, Ladies and Gentlemen, it is a great honor for me to be back in Tirana again and represent the Stability Pact at this third Conference of SEECP Speakers of Parliament.

Our Albanian friends are always most gracious hosts and I would like to thank them for their warm hospitality extended on this occasion as well as on my several previous visits to your country.

Our new Special Coordinator, Dr Erhard Busek, sends you his best wishes and regrets that he cannot be with you today. But he wishes to affirm his strong commitment to working very closely with Parliamentary institutions as the Stability Pact enters its next phase of activity.

Having been involved with the Stability Pact since we began our operations almost three years ago, it has been most encouraging for me to witness the development of closer and more productive relations between the leaders of Parliament of the countries of SE Europe. The blossoming of this process and the expansion of the institutional and personal ties among you is a very important sign of hope for the region and a demonstration of the positive changes that are taking place here. Your activity is a fundamental and critical element in the effort to develop good neighborly relationships and practical cooperation between the countries of this region.

The strong support to this process from the Parliamentary Assemblies of the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the European Parliament is also greatly appreciated and is a clear manifestation of the determination to bring this region into all of the main European institutions as quickly as possible.

The theme of this meeting "Good neighborhood and regional cooperation, promise for acceleration of the Euro-Atlantic integration process" is perfect. It is precisely the message that the Stability Pact has promoted since we started work.

There is still the unfortunate perception among many that somehow regional cooperation is a second class substitute for integration into Euro and Euro-Atlantic structures. However, as any student of the history of the European Union knows, close cooperation between former adversaries is the cornerstone upon which the EU and NATO have been built. These institutions are the great results of such cooperation. Enlargement Commissioner Verheugen has repeatedly emphasized this point noting that regional cooperation is not a alternative to EU membership but rather a prerequisite for it.

Getting out the Good News

Although "bad news" stories from the region, such as last week's incident in Macedonia or the failed attempt by SFOR to capture Karadzic still grab the media's attention, we know that there are many good news stories that receive little or no attention:

• First of all the EU SAP process is moving forward giving all the countries of this region a real European prospect for the first time.

• Yugoslavia is becoming a full and constructive partner in the region.

• The economic situation is showing signs of improvement as economic growth is up and other economic indicators are generally more positive.

• Cooperation in the field of defense and security is also moving forward through the processes established by the South East European Defense Ministers (SEDM), joint planning activity and increased confidence building measures.

The Stability Pact is pleased to have been an important catalyst in this process creating opportunities for the countries of SE Europe to come together to consider common problems as well as to get donors to pledge resources to help deal with these problems.

Last June in Brussels, under our auspices, all the countries of SE Europe signed a Memorandum of Understanding to conclude free trade agreements with one another by the end of 2002.

I am very pleased that this process is moving forward and that agreements between Albania and Macedonia, and Yugoslavia and Bosnia-Herzegovina have already been signed. These achievements, together with the fact that many other sets of negotiations are well underway, make me hopeful that this ambitious goal will be reached.

I urge Parliamentarians to take a particular interest in this process. When it is completed it should create a virtual free trade zone in SE Europe and send a strong message to the rest of the world that this region is open for business. Creating such a regional investment area is critical if we are to attract the investment capital that is needed to create jobs and produce high quality, world competitive products.

There are numerous other areas of concrete cooperation that I might cite.

These include our initiative on Disaster Preparedness or DPPI which will include the first regional disaster response exercise "Taming the Dragon" in Croatia in May. Over 18 countries will be participating.

Other examples include sub-regional cooperation of Refugee Returns, that have helped bring over 100,000 displaced persons back to Bosnia, an accord on the use of the Sava River and coordinated activity to fight human trafficking and organized crime.

This year the Special Coordinator is determined to use the Stability Pact to produce concrete and visible results. He will be making a presentation to the EU's General Affairs Council in Brussels on March 11 where he will be stressing his priority goals. I am not at liberty to provide you with his presentation. However, as a preview, I can tell you that he will give the highest priority to the areas of trade and investment, regional infrastructure, the establishment of an active sub-regional dialogue that will include Montenegro and Kosovo, the return of refugees, the reduction of small arms and light weapons and the fight against organized crime.

The Role of SEECP

The SEECP process has the potential to make a large contribution to the establishment of good neighborly relations, identifying practical areas for cooperation, establishing priorities that the countries of SE Europe share and creating a regional voice to ask for outside understanding and concrete support.

The work carried out on energy and terrorism is a useful example of how this process can focus on specific issues of common concern.

I would emphasize that the SEECP is the region's process and member governments must decide what priorities they will establish and how they want to make it work. At the same time, the Stability Pact and the larger donor community stand ready to provide help and encouragement.

In closing I would stress that the Stability Pact remains committed to working with you and your partners in the European Parliament and the Parliamentary Assemblies of the OSCE and Council of Europe to promote a useful and productive dialogue to plan the way ahead. We will continue to seek opportunities where we can facilitate direct and concrete assistance to upgrading you competencies in this field.

We also share the emphasis that your draft declaration has placed on enhancing legislative capabilities to reinforce the importance of tackling security and stability challenges.

We also welcome your focus on constructive practical cooperation with the non-governmental sector. This sector holds many of the keys to unlocking a lasting climate of security and stability in South East Europe.

In this respect, a vital contribution will be continued progress towards establishing society firmly rooted in the rule of law. We totally share the priority you have placed upon the need to combat corrupt influences and practices. We want to do whatever we can to help parliaments set an example and take the lead in this all-important area and thus create public institutions that will be worthy of the electorate's confidence and respect.