Honorable Ministers, Mr. Secretary General, Your Excellencies, The Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe is most pleased to have the opportunity to take part in this ministerial meeting of the Council of Europe.  Its focus on the theme of “Regional Cooperation and its Impact on Stability and Reform in Europe” is most appropriate for us. 

The Stability Pact was established in mid-1999 at the initiative of the German EU Presidency to tackle the very formidable problems of a South Eastern Europe that had suffered critical injury following almost a decade of war and internal conflict.   The broad goals of the Pact were to stimulate increased economic and political support for South Eastern Europe from the international donor community, to bring the countries of the region closer to Euro and Euro-Atlantic institutions and to create opportunities for reconciliation and cooperation between these countries.  Our aim was to encourage a wide range of activities that would strengthen democratic institutions and civic society, promote economic development and enhance security.

Three years later we can note happily that there is indeed much good news to report from South East Europe.  The possibility of conflict between any of the countries, which gripped the headlines of the last decade, has become remote.  As a result of the EU’s Stabilization and Association Process, all the countries of South Eastern Europe have a real perspective eventually to join their neighbors as full members of the EU.  Most countries have now joined NATO’s Partnership for Peace and actual NATO membership for Romania and Bulgaria appears to be a real possibility.  And, of course, we are delighted to see that Bosnia-Herzegovina has entered the Council of Europe. We hope that they will soon be followed by the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia.

Despite enormous demands on the international community to respond to crises around the world, donor support for South Eastern Europe is holding up.  At the Second Regional Conference we held in Bucharest last October 2.4 billion euro were pledged for a second series of regional infrastructure projects while the international community made clear its intention to maintain levels of assistance at over 6 billion euro in 2002.

Most importantly, the countries of South Eastern Europe have begun a determined effort to help themselves and now understand that regional cooperation is a not an alternative to EU membership but rather a prerequisite for entering this club.  The most spectacular single change has been in the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia where the country that had been the “black hole” in the middle of the region has now become one of our most constructive and enthusiastic partners.   We are extremely pleased that Belgrade has just assumed the chairmanship of the South East European Cooperation Process or SEECP and are confident that this promising initiative of the region will produce important concrete results in the months ahead.

Allow me to draw your attention to a few of the Stability Pact sponsored initiatives for the region that we feel are starting to make a difference and generate a new spirit of hope in South East Europe.  Through the Memorandum on Trade signed in June 2001 we are well on our way to completing a network of 21 bilateral free trade agreements by the end of the year that we hope will create a “virtual free trade area” in the region.   The regional infrastructure package of 35 transport, energy and water projects with a value of over 3 billion euro is moving forward.   The MOU on refugees and displaced persons between Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia and Yugoslavia is accelerating the pace of returns, with over 100,000 returning to BiH and Croatia in 2001.  This month we will have the first field exercise of our regional Disaster Preparedness Initiative “Taming the Dragon” with 19 participating countries and next week we will inaugurate the opening of the Regional Clearing House for Small Arms and Light Weapons in Belgrade.

The above is only a number of examples to provide a sense of what is happening in South Eastern Europe.  In addition, we will be placing particular emphasis during the remainder of this year on measures to fight organized crime and human trafficking, to encourage private investment, to create more effective use of electric power in the region, and to promote a sub-regional cooperation process that will involve UNMIK and Kosovo as part of the region.

We want to work in close partnership with the Council of Europe as we proceed.  Particularly promising fields for us to work together are cross border cooperation that will stimulate the creation of new Euro Regions and city partnerships, improving ties between parliaments, fighting crime and corruption, promoting interethnic dialogue and developing regional initiatives in the field of education.

In the effort to build a new peaceful South Eastern Europe the support of other countries in transition who have become donors in the process is particularly welcome.  Examples include Hungarian efforts to assist Yugoslavia’s democratic opposition through the Szeged Process, the Czech Republic’s support of the Yugoslav free media and interest in regional energy activity and Poland’s sharing of experiences in cross border cooperation.  The examples of these democracies, whose transitions are relatively recent, may be indeed more relevant to South Eastern Europe than those of West European countries who had their transitions decades ago.

While narrowing the large gaps between South Eastern Europe and the EU is task that will require years, and probably decades, of hard work, we are moving in the right direction.  The challenge will be to keep up the collective effort in the face of so many competing demands as South East Europe becomes “normal” and fades from the headlines.  Meanwhile we need to spread the word that fundamental change is taking place.