Thank you, Madame Chair.

Ministers, Excellencies, ladies and gentlemen,

Let me start by conveying the regrets of Special Coordinator Erhard Busek, whose unfortunate skiing accident last week prevented his travel to Zagreb today.  You can imagine that he greatly misses being here with you at this important meeting. I know that he is very pleased by the work that has been done here this week toward the creation of a truly regionally led and owned regional cooperation agenda for the years ahead.

Let me say that our work together in the Institutional Working Group over the past six weeks has been marked by a spirit of true partnership and shared objectives.   The cooperative and constructive atmosphere here this week, I believe, represents a great start toward developing a positive, ”can do” culture in the proposed Regional Cooperation Council, where the SEECP and the friends of the region will sit and focus on common goals and priorities, and the means to achieve them. 

Similarly, I would like to highlight the work done by so many together to ensure sufficient financial support for this historic undertaking in South East Europe.  Here, early and demonstrated SEECP leadership was the key, the key to generating serious counterpart commitments from the European Commission and individual donor governments.  This is a further confirmation of the strong and promising partnership surely to underpin the RCC and its secretariat.

Dr. Busek and I appreciate the many kind words of praise that have been directed at the Stability Pact in this, the concluding phase of its work.  But, at the same time, he and I realize that the Stability Pact’s success is a shared success and I congratulate your governments for what you have accomplished in the regional context.

It is also clear that the key priorities of the region’s future are the natural extension of the regional cooperation agenda of today. This agenda is based on political cooperation involving not only your governments, but parliaments, local governments, economic actors and civil society.

This agenda is founded on good economics – treaties on energy and on free trade, on a common regional investment committee, on some four billion euros of regional infrastructure projects and on a commitment to build the information society in the region in order to prepare for the knowledge economy of the future.

This agenda is also motivated by common efforts on regional security and the need to confront the cancer of corruption and organized crime in the region.

Lastly, let me say that the common commitment to build the region’s human capital is central to future progress and stability in the region.

All should recognize that this regional cooperation program is solid, internally consistent, well-received abroad and beneficial at home, and, most important, is the region’s own.

Together we have created a very positive setting for the RCC and its secretariat.

But there are real challenges now ahead of you and there are important questions to be addressed:

For example, how much ambition do you have and are willing to put into this new Regional Cooperation Council? Will you choose to create a fully-fledged international organization or will you prefer to go for a more pragmatic construction?

Your decisions in this context will determine how much the RCC will be able to achieve for all of you, within your region and in its relations to the outside, first and foremost to the European Union.

You will have to identify the best person to lead the regional cooperation agenda as the first Secretary General of the RCC.  You will also have to find consensus on the location of the RCC secretariat.

There are also challenges lying still further ahead.   I am thinking of the coming summer, fall and winter, when the Stability Pact enters its final months and we work closely with the new Secretary General to get the RCC up and running by the target date of  February 2008. 

Among these challenges is the need to address the myriad of legal and administrative details involved in setting up the RCC secretariat and its Brussels liaison office.   Similarly, the new Secretary General faces the challenge of putting together a top notch staff, drawn from the region and committed to the regional cooperation agenda. 

Another challenge for all of us is sustaining the momentum of key Stability Pact task forces and initiatives, consistent with the identified regional priorities. This is where the heart and soul -- and substance -- of true regional cooperation lie. 

The regional ownership we seek at the level of the RCC is also required in the different thematic regional co-operation processes. The agreed priorities for regional co-operation are the region’s priorities, and they require political and financial commitment, as well as staffing, from the region if they are to continue to deliver benefits.

MARRI, the Migration Asylum Refugee Regional Initiative and its Secretariat in Skopje is a timely example. Migration and visa facilitation is a priority for many of the countries of this region and the MARRI initiative has the potential to provide support in getting the necessary standards in place to move ahead on this path. But MARRI, which has operated under the SEECP umbrella for the last three years already, still needs sufficient operational capacities to be able to deliver on these issues and to move ahead under the political commitment and leadership of your countries.

The quality of your decisions will not only be fundamental for the future of regional cooperation; it is also being carefully watched by the international community. An ambitious and well-prepared outcome of our joint efforts will be understood in key capitals as a strong signal of ownership. It will also be understood and welcomed by the business community.

On all of these challenges, Dr. Busek and I, together with our Stability Pact colleagues, stand ready to assist and to do everything we can to make the learning curve as smooth and easy as possible. As we have often stated, it is crucial to ensure that the quality and momentum of regional co-operation is not weakened.

Let me conclude by leaving you with the following thought about what I see as the true measure of success for the May 10 Regional Table Meeeting and the May 11 Zagreb summit, when we launch the Regional Cooperation Council under the inspired leadership of a strong political figure from the region.    And I must say that we hope that you will be able to join the Regional Table meeting in addition to your SEECP meetings.

But the Zagreb meetings will only create the RCC and establish the foundation for the RCC secretariat.  I believe that the true success of the Zagreb meetings can only be judged in terms of the success of the May 2008 SEECP Summit, which we hope, and fully anticipate, will register the successful implementation of the regional ownership plan. If so, it will show that the strategic objective – of sustainable long-term regional cooperation in support of EU and Euro-Atlantic integration, to the benefit of the region and its people – is both sound and achievable.

So, again, let me express my appreciation and that of Dr. Busek, to you of the SEECP for your efforts to date and in the future.  Our work this week confirms the correctness of this course, and the soundness of the approach.  Let’s sustain this energy and commitment and convey it to our future colleagues in the RCC.

Thank you.

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