Address
by the President of the Republic of Romania, Mr. Emil Constantinescu
Our reunion
today proves once again the functionality and the vitality of the South-East
European Cooperation Process. I am glad it could be organized so soon,
one month after the decisive vote in the Federative Republic of Yugoslavia,
and I believe we have to congratulate ourselves for this consensus and
to congratulate our hosts, and first of all President Traikovski, for
the energetic effort of organization and diplomacy, the fruits of which
we are so generously offered now.
Our reunion
has the aim to commonly evaluate the perspectives opened now for South-Eastern
Europe by the radical change of status of the Federative Republic of
Yugoslavia, after the elections in September. I salute with greatest
joy the presence of President Kostunica among us, who has become the
symbol of this change. We ought to address congratulations to all citizens
of Yugoslavia and to their new president for the result of these elections,
the importance of which surpasses the borders of the Yugoslav space,
as it also results from our reunion, and opens a completely new perspective
to the entire region. The Progress of democracy in Yugoslavia is the
premises for turning South-East Europe into a region of peace and prosperity.
Our experience
in Romania proves that these premises can be developed, but that their
development is a difficult process, which requires a constant focusing
of energies towards the democratic progress. This effort will always
need our support too, even more so, as our countries have already transgressed
major stages of this path, know its obstacles and understand its difficulties,
yet also its essential stake, that of progress in stability and peace.
South-East Europe is regaining its natural consistency, and this informal
reunion is a sign of the capacity of cooperation in the region.
Now, the
basis of peacefully and democratically solving problems exists. We will
have to start solving them with patience and good faith. We will all
have to learn how far the logic of competition of the past has been
surpassed by history, how far the logic of cooperation can help us progress
by playing a win-win game. Rapidly applying all relevant resolutions
of the Security Council of the UN and of the agreements that derive
from it, will open the path for the recently adopted Charter of Good
Neigbourhood, taken on in Bucharest, to become a substantial and day-to-day
reality of the relationships between us. Undoubtedly, the integration
perspectives of our region into the large flows of European cooperation
represent a stimulating environment for finding again the natural paths
of dialogue and co-working, for exploring new ones. Yet what is essential
is the will of member states of the Co-operation Process in South-East
Europe to jointly define future and to jointly take action for achieving
this common European future.
A major effort
has to be done for achieving a true reconciliation in the area of the
West Balkans. The experience of Romania proves that this reconciliation
is by itself a motor of the general progress, whenever it starts from
the idea that the age of vendettas and of the lex talionis has passed
and that there is a time of mutual respect and dialogue. The rights
of the other do not diminish, but they consolidate our own rights. The
experience of Romania over the last years has solved conflicts by the
way of politics, which were inherited, from the past, but with which
we did not wish to burden our future. The most authoritative voices
of the contemporary political world consider this a model of democratically
solving potential conflicts that had been burdening public life in Romania
till recently. I therefore consider that I have the moral right, as
well as the duty, to address a general appeal to all governments in
the area to actively discourage vindictive and revanchist attitudes.
There is no collective guilt, and the individual culprits have to be
deferred to competent courts, including the International Penal Tribunal.
Cooperation
within the region has to be intensified, The Stability Pact has constituted
the pillar of a new attitude in the area. We have to congratulate the
Special Coordinator of the Stability Pact, Mr. Bodo Hombach, for the
efforts so far, and we hope that, by the return of Yugoslavia in the
concerto of European nations, a new dynamic of activities within the
Stability Pact will become manifest.
I would like
to stop for a moment on the issue of the Danube. The Danube has to become
a major axis of the European continent. Therefore, there is a need for
our joint efforts to revitalize this route of communication and trade.
And when we refer to communication and trade we do not only mean the
circulation of economic goods, but also the goods of the mind, the fertile
contact of ideas and men. I therefore consider it timely to examine
the opportunity of establishing, alongside the Reunion of heads of states
and of governments of the SEECP, a conference of the business world
of the Danube, with our friends in Hungary, Slovakia, Austria, and Germany.
I also believe
that we need to leave a region of peace and prosperity for the future
generations. This is why I suggest you to support the establishment
of a Forum of the Young Generation in South-East Europe, who should
design by their own the coordinates of their future lives. Our duty
is to open the path of cooperation - and I believe this is what we are
jointly working at now. The vision on the future should belong to the
young people, and it is only this way that they will feel plenary involved
in building this future.
Finally,
I would like to congratulate again the chairmanship in office of the
SEECP for the effort crowned by success of organizing this moment.
