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The Stability Pact aims at forever overcoming the repeated conflicts that sadly characterized Southeastern Europe at the end of the 20^th century and offering the perspective of stability and progress for the peoples of the region" - emphasized Hungarian Foreign Minister János Martonyi at international press conference in Budapest, on July 26, 2000, on the first anniversary of the Southeastern European Stability Pact.

Foreign Minister Martonyi praised the European Union to initiate the Stability Pact last year already during the first month of the Kosovo conflict, and the United States to declare immediate support as well as maintaining engagement in carrying the stability process in the region further ever since.

"Hungary, a member of NATO, a candidate for EU membership, and a neighbor to the conflict-ridden region, is acting as a bridgehead of stabilization and integration towards Southeastern Europe. "From the start, we supported the stability endeavor, and specifically proposed the need for a comprehensive political and economic reconstruction in the region. Peace and cooperation offers the only alternative to a history of conflicts" - Martonyi emphasized.

"The process of creating lasting stability, democracy, rule of law, market economy and respect for human and minority rights hopefully has already become irreversible, but the international community must continue to assist this process to become self-sustaining by political commitment and financial aid" - he added. " Nobody thought that all these tensions accumulated over centuries can be solved in one year", but, Martonyi continues, the achievements of the stability process proves the necessity of continued international engagement.

"The good news is that Southeastern Europe has already made promising steps to democratic stability, but the bad news is that Serbia is still not part of the process." - Martonyi said. "There will be no lasting peace and stability in the region without democratic Yugoslavia" - he added. "Cooperation among, and unfolding democratic and market economy evolution in the region will give further encouragement to the "islands" of democracy in Serbia." He urged the international community to provide continued assistance to democratic-led municipal governments and independent media in Serbia.

"Hungary and the democratic world share common security interests in the region" - Martonyi said. That is why Hungary assumed manifold role under the stability process form the beginning. By co-chairing Stability Pact Working Table on Democratization and Human Rights during the first 6 months of this year, Hungary focused on supporting the "islands" of democracy in Serbia, democratic local governments and free media. "They represent the nucleus of a democratic Yugoslavia, and Hungary played a pivotal role to push the need of their substantive support into the forefront of international engagement to stabilize the region" - Martonyi stated.

"You cannot create democracy from the outside in Serbia. Therefore international support must continue to the already existing "other Serbia" consisting of democratic opposition, free media, the youth, the civil society and the churches, who believe in leading back Yugoslavia to the community of democratic nations" - Martonyi stated.

"The operation was successful, but full recovery of the patient continues to require keen medical attention" - Hungarian Deputy Foreign Minister Zsolt Németh said recently, evaluating the half-year co-chairmanship of Stability Pact Working table on democracy and human rights.

Hungary launched the "Szeged process" (Szeged is a major city close to the Yugoslav borders), the framework of Hungary's political and financial commitment to the Stability pact, under which approximately 100 million USD was provided in the form of grant-in-aid and export credit lines to economic reconstruction of countries in the region as well to democratic political and media organs in Serbia. We appreciate financial contributions by the United States, Canada and Norway to the "Szeged process", and we will maintain this commitment until stability, democracy and progress will prevail in this conflict-ridden region" - Martonyi pointed out.

"The international community is interested to see a democratic Yugoslavia, where human and minority rights are respected, returning to Europe" - Martonyi underlined. This will be the ultimate success of the Stability Pact, for which the democratic world must continue its engagement" - he stated. " It is in our strongest interest, for Hungary, Europe and the United States alike, to make the beginning of the 21^st century the era of lasting stability in the Balkans" - Hungarian Foreign Minister János Martoniy concluded.

"The 1990s will be remembered for democracy replacing communism in Central Europe, and conflicts in and around the former Yugoslavia taking over the Balkans" - Martonyi pointed out. "This is Hungary's political, security and moral obligation to beam out our stability and progress, and our experiences in a successful transformation, to Southeastern Europe. It is our concerted engagement, by Hungary, Central Europe, the European Union and the United States, to do what we respectively have to do, in order to remove maybe the last, but definitely the most serious, stumbling block on the road to a Europe whole and free" - Hungarian Foreign Minister János Martonyi emphatically stated when concluding his press conference.

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