A Partnership for Progress: the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe

by Bodo Hombach

One year after the solemn launching of the Stability Pact, the time is ripe to draw a first balance of the Pact, its achievements and highlight areas of further focus. The road that we have taken in Sarajevo has been a fascinating journey, not always an easy and comfortable one, but one that has been worth making. The process has consolidated a number of key achievements. First and foremost, Western Europe and the international community have realised that we are all in the same boat. The Stability Pact is not about "us" and "them". It is about a common endeavour, that we have to undertake together. We are the building blocks of the Stability Pact, a single, powerful, partnership between resources and potential - for creating prosperity, democracy and stability in South Eastern Europe as a precondition for the full integration of the region into the European – and transatlantic – structures.

The political message launched to the region is clear, and has been clearly understood – and valued for its significance – by the enlightened leaderships of the region. The Stability Pact spelled out and supported the European vocation of all States in South Eastern Europe. The Pact makes clear that help will be given to those who help themselves; that our futures are inextricably bound together; and that we will decide our common future in partnership. It recognises that peace and stability require economic progress. But, equally, that economic progress is not possible without the conditions having been created to assure peace and stability.

One year after the launching of the Stability Pact we can say that we are on track. The Stability Pact has become an enabler and a catalyst. It has not been easy and won’t get easier. But the Pact is delivering. In particular as the co-ordination framework for the medium and long term efforts of all its partners towards peace, prosperity and regional co-operation in South Eastern Europe and its integration in the Euro-Atlantic structures.

After the Regional Table in Thessaloniki, the political direction is clear, based on three main pillars endorsed by all Stability Pact members: implementation of priority areas, enhancement of regional co-operation and giving substance to the concept of ownership by the countries of South Eastern Europe.

As regards priority areas, the target countries concerned will need to intensify their efforts in the reform process, and give further momentum to the positive trends that are being registered in the region. On the other hand, the international community has to accompany this process of reform and also assist the region in developing infrastructure and private sector.

The second priority is the focus on enhanced regional co-operation. This is another positive development, for which the Pact has created the conditions. The recent achievements of the South East Europe Co-operation Process (SEECP) provide a striking example. But they do not stand alone. A compact region, that progresses together, can make its voice heard more easily –and more credibly.

This leads me to the third priority that we have agreed upon in Thessaloniki: regional empowerment or ownership of the process, based on one key political factor: countries in the region must play a driving role within the Pact. To do so, the initiative must come from within the region, which has to create the conditions and become a credible and trustworthy partner to be able to better defend its interests within the international community.

There are a number of other challenges awaiting our collective efforts. It is essential that we make visible and rapid progress in implementing the Pact, in all its facets. Many important steps in the right direction have already been taken. 2.4 billion Euro has been provided for a Quick Start Package of over 200 projects, for a period up to April next year, in which we are improving infrastructure, strengthening democratic institutions, and enhancing co-operation on crime-fighting and defence. The Quick Start Package is well underway, with projects coming on stream – tendering, building work etc – month by month.

Wide ranging agreements on promoting inward investment, protecting the freedom of the media, and fighting corruption, have been agreed and are in the process of implementation. The international banks have agreed strategies – adopted by all Pact participants - for regional economic development, helping small and medium sized enterprises, and building up infrastructure. The EU is working intensively on proposals for giving access to EU markets for goods from south eastern Europe. After establishing the Szeged Process in October 1999, we have used the new framework to provide substantial, direct help to the democratic opposition and independent media in Serbia. We have helped Montenegro to maintain its moderate and pro-European path. And regional co-operation is flourishing, with successes like the Charter on Good Neighbourly Relations, the Romania - Bulgaria agreement on the new Danube bridge, the International Peace Force in Plovdiv, reconciliation and co-operation between the governments in Croatia and Montenegro, and many other examples.

The first projects have become construction sites. Such as the Kukes-Durres or Skopje-Pristina roads including the Blace border post. Three more infrastructure projects have started, nine others are ready for tenders.

But the Pact is not only about roads and bridges. I consider democratic institution building, media freedom, the investment climate, border security to be equally - if not even more important - political construction sites. Overall, 50 Quick Start projects in these fields have begun. Furthermore, the Anti Corruption Initiative and the Investment Compact are up and running.

Finally, the most demanding task of all: turn around the trend of negative reporting about the region. So far, only bad news from South Eastern Europe is news. Good news is no news. I am actively working on this and call on you to join me. We need to better communicate your promising economic growth projections, the increase in foreign investments by almost 100 per cent from 1999 to 2000, breakthroughs like the Bulgarian-Romanian bridge, events like the recent meeting between the Croatian and the Montenegrin Presidents. These are the things, foreign investors like to hear. With your support I am planning to organise a series of investors’ conferences in Western Europe and the G7 States in order to get these messages across. But you, too, have to engage in a major exercise of megaphone public diplomacy on the progress achieved in your countries.

In November, the European Union will hold a Summit in Zagreb together with countries of south eastern Europe. This must be a success. I fully support the French Presidency in its efforts to ensure that. The aim of the EU and all of us involved in the Pact is to make the Balkans a beacon of hope for all Europe.

With the unacceptable regime in Milosevic's Yugoslavia at its heart, the region has a difficult future still ahead of it. The Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe offers Yugoslavia the prospect of integration into the European mainstream, if it respects the fundamental standards of international and domestic behaviour to which the Pact would commit it. This is an offer which I believe the people of Yugoslavia will accept, and in doing so they will remove and replace a corrupt and monstrous regime in Belgrade.