Speeches

15 November 2006,  Bucharest (back to news list) Speech by Special Co-ordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe Erhard Busek at the Meeting of Working Table III As this is the first of our meetings today and tomorrow, here in Bucharest, let me welcome you and let me express my sincere gratitude to our hosts, the Government of Romania. Less than seven weeks from now Romania will become a EU member state, together with Bulgaria, as a result of their hard work in the past years. But…for them and for all countries of SEE a lot of hard work still is lying ahead, to make SEE as A WHOLE more successful and to make the life of ALL SEE citizens more secure and prosperous. WT III initiatives ARE dealing with different aspects of security, of the state and of its citizens, but also of the region as a whole. Because security is indivisible: there can be no security for just one state, one house, one person; the security of one’s neighbours is part of one’s own security. This, of course, means that security is a common responsibility and that security issues have to remain a central part of any common SEE agenda. At this meeting you will consider whether the eight remaining WT III initiatives or Task Forces should be continued as a common regional responsibility, AND you will consider the specific steps needed to do so. In other words: Which is the best way for SEE governments to assume political responsibility for the initiatives, AND through which specific contributions are the SEE ministers and experts going to do so in practise? Transfer to regional ownership in each case will require: Stronger political, financial and technical involvement of the SEE countries; yes indeed more leadership, both within governments in capitals and in the context of cooperative efforts and A vision on how to involve the EU and other international partners in these regional cooperative frameworks. Legal aspects of the transition process are also important for some of the task forces, but I do not expect that we will need to adopt the same solution in all cases. Flexibility is a virtue, and “same size does NOT fit all”. The fact sheets on the eight initiatives, describing the transition strategies in some detail, are intended to focus discussions. In most cases considerable progress towards transition has already been achieved and I recognize the important work done by the teams involved. But, there are still plenty of issues that require clear decisions by the stakeholders, partly concerning the general approach, but partly also regarding the availability of the financial and personnel resources needed from the SEE countries. Both types of uncertainties need to be addressed by you, and I mean, by the delegations from SEE first and foremost. Let me give some examples. Firstly: do you agree that the work of the Police Forum is so useful and so unique that it should be continued, and that the leadership of that work should be assumed by SEPCA, the SEE Police Chiefs Association? Is that strategically the best solution? Can SEPCA do it? What would be needed for this solution to be successful? We need your comments! The second example: are SEE governments ready to contribute financially to the budgets of SPAI and DPPI in 2007? We are asking for affordable amounts, because our initiatives do not need large bureaucracies.   But, how many governments are ready to contribute next year? And what about those who are not? Are they not convinced that these two initiatives should be continued? Or do they support this, but has a financial contribution not yet been approved? Or, in a different context, are countries able and willing to move ahead on the SECI Centre reform so that SPOC could be successfully integrated as its future legal department? We need your answers! Finally, SEE is indeed part of Europe, and of the world at large. To conclude: Security is indivisible and the security agenda is a common responsibility, requiring our joint efforts. The international partners of SEE are well aware of this and I am fully confident that they will keep working on this common agenda with the SEE partners. Indeed, also after the transition of the SP into the RCC and after the transition of individual initiatives into SEE leadership, their strategic and material support is needed, and, I am sure, can be counted upon.