BY PIETER VERBEEK, DIRECTOR SP WORKING TABLE III

Thank you for offering the opportunity to highlight what the SP SEE (SP) WTIII is doing, in particular concerning defence conversion and how we cooperate with NATO.

As you know, defence conversion in SEE is a multi-facetted subject area, with many recent steps forward, but also with many remaining challenges, where regional and other types of international cooperation would be needed.

First, however, let me make a couple of brief remarks about how the SP is operating and about the areas covered by Working Table III.

The SP is an AD HOC COALITION conceived after the Kosovo conflict to promote stability in a wider sense in SEE. The constituency involved covers on the donor side roughly EU, NATO and their member states plus Russia, Japan and Switzerland, plus the World Bank, OSCE and the OECD; on the recipient side the 8 SEE states.  

In the course of almost five years SP (founded July ’99) the emphasis within this general objective of promoting regional stability has, however, been shifting from demilitarisation measures and confidence building in a post-conflict situation, towards helping the region to catch up with its European neighbours on economic and social development, on having an open society where the rule of law prevails and with good neighbourly relations with open, well managed borders. A lot of progress has indeed been made and, perhaps to our own surprise, we find ourselves now in the midst of paving the way for the SEE countries towards becoming associates and perhaps even partners in the major European and Euro-Atlantic institutions.

The 2^nd point I should mention here is that the SP was not established as a funding agency, with its own budget to finance projects in the SEE countries. Assistance was financed through other channels, bilateral and multilateral. Overall bilateral and multilateral assistance to the region averaged since 1999 at between 6 and 6.6 billion Euro.

So, how is the SP able to make any contribution at all with such a general mandate and without a budget of its own?

On the mandate issue: the SP is focusing its efforts on six core objectives, adopted by the Regional Table, and selected on the basis of criteria such as: urgency; need for assistance and need for regional cooperation; expected impact of results on promoting stability and development;  and applicability of the SP’s skills of initiating and facilitating cooperation between SEE countries and other SP parties such as the EU and NATO. For Working Table III the two core objectives are fighting organized crime and corruption, and migration and refugee issues. Defence conversion is not selected as a core objective, but is attracting strong support from an increasing number of SP partners.

The initiating and the facilitating role and possibilities of the SP are as its principal diplomatic assets. To initiate or strengthen cooperation among partners and to provide the fora for them to meet are indeed the main tasks of the Special Coordinator, Erhard Busek, and the Brussels based staff.

The SP is also the only intergovernmental forum dedicated specifically to cover the whole range of questions pertaining to the stabilisation of SEE. Although an intergovernmental forum, its working methods are not very formal and quite flexible. SP Initiatives are carried forward by Task Forces, 23 at the moment, within WT III there are 11.

Task forces and their Steering Committees typically are composed of experts from partner international organisations, the SEE countries, donor countries and sometimes relevant NGO’s. Task Forces are the fora for developing an initiative and translating it into specific activities, generally in the areas of awareness raising and policy advocacy, capacity building, and assisting SEE governments on implementation. Not all Task Forces operate in the same manner: some will focus on policy advocacy and raising public awareness, others will move as close as possible to assisting implementation.

And indeed successful implementation is the only thing which ultimately matters. All resources and energy spent on capacity building in the end only pay off when the governments concerned take matters in their own hands and decide to do what is necessary. Within WT III regional ownership, and focusing assistance on achieving progress towards policy objectives by SEE governments themselves are the guiding principles. Only progress which can be monitored and reported will help the SEE governments to achieve their ultimate ambition of becoming partners in the European and Euro-Atlantic structures.

Let us now move to Defence Conversion. 

SP and Defence Conversion  

- SP shares with NATO and the EU a common vision for the future of the Western Balkans, namely self-sustaining stability based on democratic and effective government structures and a viable free market economy. From this joint vision and determination we should help to pave the way for the SEE countries towards European and Euro-Atlantic structures. The EU driven Stabilisation and Association Process, the NATO Partnership for Peace and the Membership Action Plan are the key instruments facilitating these integration processes.

- Much remains to be done – including a fundamental reform of the defence and security sectors - before the countries of the region can be fully integrated in both the European and Euro-Atlantic structures. Such reforms are currently being prepared in most countries of the region. Partly as a result of this process cross-border military threats in SEE have become unlikely. For the Stability Pact the focus is now on the area of Defence Conversion.  

- The key questions here are how to restructure and downsize military forces adapting them to the new security situation and the economic realities of the SEE region, to possible new roles as partners in international peace keeping, and all of this again in the light of decisions on the enlargement of both EU and NATO.  

- Why is Defence Conversion such a serious matter? We know from international studies on post-conflict situations – and, of course, the situation in large parts of the SEE region still resembles in many ways such a situation - that the sudden release of vast numbers of military personnel (officers, soldiers, defence bureaucrats, etc.) into a struggling economy with significant levels of unemployment and social tension can seriously destabilize a society and, as a consequence, even endanger regional stability and security. In extreme cases, absence of adequate reintegration possibilities may provoke an increase in organized crime, weapon smuggling, mercenary activities, and violence towards minorities, which are, by the way, exactly the problems and security threats, facing SEE. The shutdown of bases and military facilities can be particularly painful for specific cities and regions when their economies, as was often the case in parts of the Balkans, heavily depended on the presence of such military infrastructure.

- The Regional Table/Working Table III meeting(s) in Tirana in December 2003 called for enhanced regional cooperation to tackle these multiple challenges in the area of security sector reform, including Defence Conversion. The Stability Pact currently is consulting with other regional fora, such as the South Eastern European Cooperation Process (SEECP), the SEEGROUP or the SEE Defence Ministerial (SEDM) on the modalities for such cooperation.

- To obtain progress and tangible results in the area of Defence Conversion, political will sustained over a longer period of time to give priority to introducing the necessary reforms is crucial. Regional cooperation, such as exchanging best practices among the relevant actors as well as financial support by the international community should help to strengthen the political momentum to overcome existing internal opposition against such reforms. Support programs to enhance political and parliamentary control over the military sector and the reform processes within SEE Ministries of Defence are, therefore, an indispensable part, as well as measures to cushion the social consequences of major reductions in armed forces and military infrastructure. 

- Defence Conversion is indeed an issue with social and economic dimensions of great consequence. At the Regional Table in Tirana one of the possibilities identified to boost this process and to ensure more political and financial support for it is giving a follow-up to the Berlin Conference on Military Conversion in September of last year by organizing a meeting in the region, preferably at the political level, to highlight progress achieved so far and to identify gaps where regional cooperation would be useful. Participation of Ministries of Defence (MoDs) from the SEE region would be important. High-level participation by NATO and other international stakeholders, government officials, donors and international financial institutions would be of equal importance. The establishment of an SEE Regional Centre for Defence Conversion (with a permanent secretariat and staff) could be among the concrete outcomes of such a meeting.

- Clearly, to achieve progress on specific areas of Defence Conversion, such as retraining redundant military personnel, conversion of military sites and bases, conversion of military industry), MoDs would need the support of their colleagues for the Interior, and Finance and other relevant governmental bodies. Defence Conversion indeed is to a very large extent an economic and social issue and, accordingly also needs to be dealt with in the context of economic reconstruction and social development policies. Consequently, training the experts within all the ministries involved and also the parliamentarians involved in this process needs to be addressed as well.  

   The SP has been cooperating with NATO on a number of specific issues. Together with the Security and Defence Economics Directorate- one of their experts, Ms Frederique Jacquemin,  is the Task Force leader for the SP Defence Economics initiative - we have successfully launched programmes for assisting the transition to civilian life of discharged military personnel in several countries, as well as for the conversion of former military bases. Together with NATO colleagues we have convened a group composed of experts from NATO Member States to assess and make recommendations on specific conversion programmes in some SEE countries. This enhanced the credibility of the national programmes concerned vis-à-vis bilateral donors and financial institutions, amongst them the World Bank. To mention one specific example of a national programme currently being addressed: cooperation has started with FYR Macedonia and will soon start with Serbia-Montenegro. In the latter case also an expert from the SP will join the team. In a number of cases pilot projects will have to pave the way for national strategies, putting emphasis on implementation and achieving tangible results. But also with a view to maximizing national ownership, involvement and priority setting by making available own resources and manpower from the very beginning. Such initiatives are now underway in Romania and Bulgaria. Albania, Croatia and again FYR Macedonia have expressed their interest in similar forms of cooperation. 

- Combining NATO expertise and resources with the facilitating potential of the Stability Pact to bring together governments and other relevant international stakeholders as well as the SP’s potential to mobilize support from international financial institutions and bilateral donors appears to be a successful formula. As another case in point to illustrate this the ‘Ohrid’ border process may serve, where NATO, OSCE, EU and the SP are cooperating with the Western Balkan countries towards establishing secure and well-managed borders in the region. 

- Obviously, the question of the conversion of former military industries is among the toughest. Several South Eastern European countries have already raised the topic specifically, seeking our guidance and help. We have no interest to support military production in the SEE region. Rather, we should give thought to how we might assist the countries concerned in the process of conversion of their military industry to civilian use. We are anxious to look at ways international assistance can be brought to bear to help ease the transition in this important field. On our side, the SP has initiated a dialogue within the SP Business Advisory Council to see if we can raise interest for certain specific projects. Part of closing down military facilities is to make a start with addressing the environmental contamination at many military sites, as this often will obstruct conversion projects and at the same time is necessary to remove possible health threats to the surrounding population.  

- On Defence Conversion international organisations (like UNDP), and NGOs, such as the Geneva Centre for Democratic Control of Armed Forces or the Bonn International Centre for Conversion (BICC) are already making important contributions by making available their valuable expertise to the region. We are also aware of an excellent job done by other international partners, in particular by OSCE and IOM in Bosnia and Herzegovina ( a program called Transitional Assistance to Former Soldiers of the Armed Forces of Bosnia and Herzegovina) and the World Bank ( the Emergency Demobilization and Reintegration Project and  the Pilot Emergency Labour Redeployment Project).

- In the areas of supporting increased democratic control over the armed forces and security sector reform the SP is working together with the Geneva Centre for the Democratic Control of Armed Forces (DCAF) in order to build capacity at the parliamentary level and with the Zagreb-based Regional Arms Control Verification and Implementation Assistance Centre (RACVIAC) to provide capacity building at the level of senior civil servants and military personnel.  

- In May 2004, five Stability Pact participants will become EU member states. This will make it possible to further use their transition experience and also such experience in reforming their defence infrastructure as a source of lessons learned for the countries of SEE. But also the “lessons learned” in Defence Conversion projects in Russia and the Ukraine with assistance of experts from the US and Canada could prove to be a very valuable source for others. 

- In conclusion, let me quote from Erhard Busek’s speech at the Berlin Conference: “This is, on one side, what we may offer. On the other, our friends from the region have to fully acknowledge that the onus for progress is on them.  They are responsible for seeing that these issues are addressed and that available international resources are effectively utilized. There can clearly be no progress in this important area without the full commitment of the countries concerned”.