SARAJEVO, July 29 (Hina) - Finland's President Marti Ahtisaari on Thursday opened a preparatory meeting of a summit meeting of the Stability Pact for South-East Europe in Sarajevo, which is attended by delegations of nine countries
from the region, led by heads of state and government, and another ten countries attending the meeting as guests or observers.
SARAJEVO, July 29 (Hina) - Finland's President Marti Ahtisaari on
Thursday opened a preparatory meeting of a summit meeting of the
Stability Pact for South-East Europe in Sarajevo, which is attended
by delegations of nine countries from the region, led by heads of
state and government, and another ten countries attending the
meeting as guests or observers. #L#
Along with representatives from Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina,
Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, Albania, Turkey, Bulgaria and
Macedonia, delegations from Switzerland (which expressed a wish to
join the Pact), Cyprus, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Latvia,
Lithuania, Moldavia, Poland, Slovakia, and Ukraine also gathered
in Sarajevo on the first day of the summit.
Participating in the preparatory meeting are also representatives
of the Council of Europe, Western European Union, International
Monetary Fund, World Bank, European Bank for Reconstruction and
Development, South-East European Cooperation Initiative, Central
European Initiative, UNHCR, and the Organisation for Security and
Cooperation in Europe.
Opening the meeting, Ahtisaari said the gathering was held at a
historic moment when Europe was leaving a period of destruction and
wars and facing great hopes and possibilities.
Cooperation between European countries is becoming closer and the
Stability Pact should become a turning point which will create
conditions for a permanent peace and security and not allow ad hoc
reactions to new crisis points, Ahtisaari said.
The Stability Pact is an initiative aimed at gathering not only
those countries which are most efficient in stability but all
partners on the highest political level, he added.
The Finnish president called on countries in the region to use as
much as possible partnership opportunities offered to them.
The overall transition of countries in the region is a precondition
for their joining wider integration processes.
Reconciliation and readiness to cooperate with neighbours will be
the key criterion for new integration processes, Ahtisaari said,
adding cooperation priorities would be strengthening trust,
fighting organised crime and terrorism, media reorganisation,
communications, customs cooperation and immigration issues, as
well as the return of refugees.
Speaking on behalf of the leadership of the country hosting the
summit, Bosnian Presidency member Alija Izetbegovic said in his
introductory speech that the real peace and prosperity were
indivisible because Europe could live in prosperity if a part of it
was burdened with conflicts and lawlessness.
He described the Stability Pact as a grand project whose
implementation would be in the interest of all countries
participating in it.
The Stability Pact could be the final turning point leading toward
peace and security, preconditions for which had been created by the
Dayton agreement and the resolution of the Kosovo crisis, he said.
He regretted that the Belgrade regime was an obstacle for Serbian
citizens to be part of a joint endeavour, adding Serbia should take
its place in the Pact but only if it rejected repression and
respected the rights of Montenegro, Sandzak and Kosovo.
Izetbegovic called on Bosnia's neighbours to follow the initiative
on reducing military costs with OSCE's mediation.
The refugee issue should be solved on the regional level and
minority rights should be protected through special institutions,
he added.
Bodo Hombach, the coordinator of the Stability Pact, said
participants in the summit were expected to give suggestions
regarding the first working meeting, to be held in September.
The engagement of the international community in the region will
depend on the amount of readiness demonstrated by every country to
participate in the democratisation process and the establishment
of civil society, Hombach said.
He called on countries in the region to concentrate on better
cooperation instead of competing towards Brussels at each other's
detriment.
There is no reason to fear that the Pact would revive the former
Yugoslavia in any way, because that is not going to happen, he
said.
Following the introductory speeches, the meeting continued behind
closed doors.
(hina) rml