Address
by Senator Felice Besostri, Chairman in Office of the CEI Parliamentary
Assembly
Dear President,
Speakers of the Parliaments of the South East European Co-operation
Process, Representatives of the International organizations,
dear friends,
I want to thank the Macedonia
Parliament and its President for the invitation. I am very honored to
represent here the Parliamentary Assembly of the Central European Initiative.
The Parliamentary Dimension
of the CEI has grown in the last years and I hope that, during the 2001,
the year of the Italian chairmanship we can consolidate the process
and foster the parliamentary cooperation a fundamental part of the foreign
and international relations. In a democratic state parliaments are the
highest representative of the citizens and also the expression of the
pluralism of society.
A democratic elected
parliament should represent a community with multiethnic composition
of the population: democracy is the only instrument able to allow balancing
the multipartism with the needs of a stable majority.
Democracy doesn't exist
and live without enemies: the ethnic and political extremist groups,
the organized crime, the economic groups which link with the corruption
practices and all kinds of illegal trafficking.
A democracy is weaker
when isolated, when the assistance of the richer democracies is insufficient,
when democratic states are not able to cooperate among them.
For this reason it is
important to strengthen the cooperation's for a: all the cooperation
fora as this one and the Central European Initiative. This co-operation
within the CEI, is now more important than ever, because one of its
member, the Republic of Macedonia, is under the danger of the terrorist
attack of ethnic extremists, mainly based across the border. In this
area, the ethnic minorities must not be considered a problem anymore,
but, on the contrary, a resource, a bridge between states, for the communities
living across the border.
After the cases of Krajina,
Bosnia and Herzegovina, Kosovo and Metohya, we cannot accept the prevailing
of the principle of ethnical state, instead of the model of a pluralistic
nation which respects, protects and develops its minority. Ethnic homogenous
state asks for important changes of the borders with a consequence of
a new tragical period of instability. On the contrary we need stability:
only stability can assure economic development and co-operation for
the states of the region.
The European Union should
give a great contribution to this development and the enlargement process
of the EU must be a factor helping a larger European integration, avoiding
every de facto creation of new divisions in Europe, as it is stated
in paragraph 4 of the Final document approved by the CEI Parliamentary
Committee which met in Rome, March 9, 2001, and which is available here
in the Conference.
The CEI is the only sub-regional
international organization where the countries coming from the Central
and eastern part of Europe are in an overwhelming majority: 15 upon
17 member states. So it can be considered the proper forum for representing
their own interests in the way of the approaching to the European integration.
Next year in 2002, Macedonia is going to hold the Presidency of CEI,
and I am sure, it will be a good opportunity for this country to demonstrate
its vital role in increasing the cooperation process in the Balkan.
Thanks for the opportunity
to speak in this distinguished Conference.
