Regional Cooperation in South Eastern Europe – Lessons learnt from the Stability pact and Future Challenges for the RCC

Dear Mr. Belyakov,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a particular honour for me to be today here at the Diplomatic Academy and to exchange views with you on the importance of regional co-operation in South Eastern Europe, a topic which has been the core business of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe since its launch in 1999 and which is also of particular interest to Russian Foreign Policy.

The Stability Pact has worked for almost nine years at consolidating democracy, promoting economic development and fostering security in South Eastern Europe. The situation in South Eastern Europe has radically improved since 1999 in all these fields, even if today the spotlight is on tensions following and surrounding Kosovo’s supervised independence.

The region is now politically more stable, economically viable and a more secure place. The very concept of regional co-operation, which was not extremely welcome back in 1999, is now widely accepted in the region as a valuable contribution to political, economic and social development.

The Stability Pact initiatives, task forces and working groups have successfully dealt with such diverse issues as education, media, parliamentary co-operation, trade liberalisation, energy, prevention of natural and man-made disasters, the fight against crime and corruption and defence conversion.

In all these fields, major progress was achieved.

The centrepieces of this regional agenda are energy and trade.The regional energy market is now fully integrated with the EU via the Energy Community Treaty, signed in 2005 and that enhances energy security both in the region and in the EU.

Under the amended and enlarged Central European Free Trade Agreement, CEFTA 2006, the region is now a single large, free trade area, which will boost intra-regional trade and will make the region much more attractive for investors, both domestic and international.

The South East European Investment Committee will enhance economic development through regional co-operation on investment promotion policies and reforms.   

South Eastern Europe is also working hard to promote the knowledge economy and to bridge the digital divide.    Most recently, the establishment of a regional Center for eGovernance Development was established to accelerate the pace of eGovernance activity in the region and quicken development of eEconomy and eBusiness in the region.

South East European parliaments region are also co-operating more intensively, assisted by the Regional Secretariat for Parliamentary Co-operation based in Sofia. Such co-operation will be further strengthened and formalized by a Memorandum of Understanding that Speakers of South East European Co-operation Process Parliaments have signed on 14 April 2008.

The SECI Transborder Crime Fighting Centre in Bucharest is an important hub for crime fighting activities and is a serious counterpart partner with international partners such as Europol, Interpol and others.

The Regional Anticorruption Initiative continues to address the difficult problem of corruption in the region, and work to promote the rule of law and transparency that are so critical to progress and political stability.

Countries of the region have signed a Memorandum of Understanding to enhance regional co-operation and regional consultation in the field of disaster management and response, committing to more technical and financial responsibility, and a Ministerial meeting of the South Eastern Europe Cooperation Process, attended also by relevant international actors such as NATO, the World Bank, the EU, and the UN, took place on 9 April 2008 and confirmed this commitment.

All these initiatives constitute a consistent and clear co-operation programme, at the service of the governments and of the people of South Eastern Europe.

Regional co-operation and European and Euro-Atlantic integration are two interlinked processes. It took the Stability Pact a long time to convincingly demonstrate that the two processes are inextricably intertwined, and to overcome the fear of some countries that regional co-operation was proposed to them as an antechamber or a alternative to EU integration. Today the message is accepted that co-operating with neighbour countries is a valuable reinforcement to domestic political, economic and social reforms and constitutes for the countries of South Eastern Europe an essential element on their way to the EU and NATO-Membership. 

And thanks to this enhancement of regional ownership, regional co-operation is no longer seen as a condition imposed from powerful external actors but as having an inherent value and being in the interest of the South East European countries themselves.

This increased maturity of the region has been the main reason behind the transformation of the internationally sponsored Stability Pact into the Regional Co-operation Council, which was formalised last 27 February in Sofia. The RCC, as a fully regionally owned and led framework and with its set of initiatives, will be a key actor in consolidating stability and security in the region, building on the Stability Pact legacy while giving countries in the region the core responsibility for their own affairs.

In my view this is quite a success story for South Eastern Europe – a success story which should be benchmarked. While every region is different in its political, economic and social context, there are lessons, which can be drawn and might be useful also for other regions, such as for example the Black Sea region.

Before I pass the floor to the Secretary General of the RCC, Mr. Hido Biscevic, allow me to add some additional words about Kosovo.

The issue of the status of Kosovo did not fall within the Stability Pact’s mandate, but one of our biggest achievements has been to integrate Kosovo, represented by UNMIK according to UN Security Council Resolution 1244 and its Provisional Institutions of Self Government, fully into virtually all regional processes under the Stability Pact. This allowed us to ensure implementation of our initiatives in Kosovo, avoid that Kosovo becomes a black hole on the map of South Eastern Europe, and connect it to an active grid of regional co-operation networks.

Tensions surrounding Kosovo’s path to supervised independence, and particularly the reaction by Serbia to it, have raised fears of the region sliding back to its recent past of divisions and have created the impression that the stability of the region is in a fragile balance.

The importance of Kosovo being fully integrated in regional co-operation emerges clearly in the current, delicate political phase. Regional co-operation initiatives, from trade to energy to anticorruption strategies and investment policies, provide a wide umbrella making it more difficult for any relevant actor to devise and apply measures aimed at isolating any other partner.

Serbia, while challenging the declaration of independence of Kosovo and having strongly reacted diplomatically against those countries that recognized it, also in the region, has nevertheless restated its interest in participating in regional co-operation activities and schemes.

At the last and final Regional Table meeting, and at the first meeting of the RCC, in Sofia, on 27 February, the delicate question of how Kosovo had to be represented was handled pragmatically, both parts were given the opportunity of expressing their point of view while all regional and international partners –irrespectively of their position on the issue - acted constructively and responsibly.

The RCC and all regional networks now under its leadership, though not addressing the issue of Kosovo’s sovereignty directly, can be a neutral venue and can provide mechanisms to dilute tensions, focusing on practical issues and proposing pragmatic arrangements, as this was the case with the Stability Pact. Challenges facing South Eastern Europe shall not be underestimated; however I think there  is reasonable ground for moderate optimism for the future. With a strong co-operative framework in place, the Regional Co-operation Council, with an effective secretariat drawn from the region and with the outstanding regional leadership of Secretary General Biscevic, I am confident that the momentum of broad progress created by the Stability Pact, will continue in South Eastern Europe.

I would like to thank the Head of the International Cooperation Department of the Diplomatic Academy, Mr. Belyakov, for having invited me today to speak to you and thank you for your attention.