Address
by the Special Coordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe,
Bodo Hombach
Excellencies,
Let me thank President Trajkovski for the occasion to join this important
summit meeting of the SEECP. This is a good day for South Eastern Europe
and therefore for the whole of Europe. Who of us would have imagined
a year ago the chance of a SEECP-Meeting at this level and the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia to be present?
Now, more
than ever, and as President Trajkovski has stressed, the SEECP is one
of the main pillars of the Stability Pact. The Stability Pact and SEECP
play mutually reinforcing roles. The Stability Pact seeks to enhance
the regional cooperation by the SEECP. An operational SEECP fulfills
one of the central commitments under the Stability Pact: the commitment
by the countries of South Eastern Europe to cooperate closely within
their region.
I welcome
the return of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia into the regional process
. This also means the return of the practice of good-neighbourly relations
to the region. It is a key contributing factor to the sustainable success
of SEECP.
President
Kostunica, your presence here today is a signal to your neighbours that
you are trying to overcome the legacy of the last years \/vhich have
brought bloodshed, war and ethnic cleansing to the Balkans. It is also
a signal by all the neighbours of the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia
that they are ready to grasp the outstretched hand of the Yugoslav people
who have voted Milosevic out and the democratic forces in.
Yes, there
are concerns and even fears on all sides. Yes, there are wounds which
will take a long time to heal. We should not try to forget the past.
Many outstanding problems await their solution. We should work with
the past to win a better future. And today is the day when the building
of bridges, which is a symbol of the Stability Pact for South Eastern
Europe - physically and politically, will now also start again between
the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia and the wider region.
The future
of all countries in the region lies in the European Union. Each and
every country will be judged on its own merits, but all of your countries
can and will improve their European vocation by implementing the necessary
reforms and closely cooperating with its neighbours in South Eastern
Europe. l am sure that Greece, which is a member of the European Union,
will play a leading role in this process.
Borders which
do not divide but which unite: this is the name of the European game.
This is why President Trajkovski's proposal to create Euro-Regions between
your countries is a very pertinent one. This is why I believe that the
SEECP should commit itself to quick and operational results in regional
cooperation which all countries can present to the European Union as
their contribution to European unity and to their individual access
to the European Union.
This is particularly
true for the countries in the Stabilisation and Association Process
who need to demonstrate to the European Union at the upcoming Zagreb
Summit on 24 November 2000 that cooperation amongst themselves has drastically
improved. This is also why I will support an SEECP action plan of loser
cooperation in the fields of dismantling trade barriers in South Eastern
Europe, the common fight against trans-border organised crime, increased
military to military contacts, benchmarking in democratic institution
building and other fields you may choose. If this is presented to the
Zagreb Summit, it will greatly contribute to the acceleration of the
EU Stabilisation and Association process for each of the countries concerned.
Europe will not honour a race to Brussels in which nobody looks after
their neighbours.
The Stability
Pact will work with you to facilitate this process. Tomorrow, in a meeting
of the Regional Table in Bucharest, we count on taking in the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia as a full and equal participant into the Stability
Pact. This means that the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia wll have equal
rights and duties under the Stability Pact, the same conditionality.
As in the case of other countries in the region, I consider the full
implementation of all commitments as indispensable, but also as part
of a process.
The Stability
Pact is the first international institution, which will accept the new
Yugoslavia in its ranks. Tomorrow's meeting of the Regional Table in
Bucharest will therefore be symbolically important. As for all the countries
the region, the inclusion into the Stability Pact is also for the Federal
Republic of Yugoslavia the key to Europe. It also shows that the lntemational
Community, the EU, the OSCE, the G8 and the other relevant international
institutions have a collaborative strategy towards the region.
I should
be grateful, if the SEECP could send a strong signal from Skopje that
all countries in South Eastern Europe are today ready to promote.good-neighbourly
relations with each other. This is why I consider it to be mportant
that the region fully supports the participation of the Federal Republic
of Yugoslavia in the Stability Pact.
A great amount
of work is waiting for us in the Stability Pact work for entire region.
I will continue to push for the timely implementation of all Quick!
Start projects. Tomorrow in Bucharest at the stock of the progress in
the fields of democratisation, institution building and human rights.
And I am already talking to the High Level Steering Group and the incoming
EU Presidency on how to get the financing process for the near term
projects going.
