SECI " TRAINING CAMP " FOR EU - SAYS BUSEK

( Editorial: --> 5926 ) ZAGREB, May 22 (Hina) - An international conference, entitled "Regional Cooperation in South-Eastern Europe", was held on Friday at the Europe House in Zagreb and was attended by representatives of international institutions as well as reputed foreign and Croatian experts. The initiative on regional cooperation met with controversial responses on the part of the Croatian public, and has became a "highly politicised" issue, said in his introduction Ljubomir Cucic, the president of Europe House which organised the conference in cooperation with the Faculty of Political Sciences. The SECI co-ordinator, former Austrian vice-chancellor Erhard Busek, expressed his satisfaction with the opportunity for the first time to explain the SECI's goals in Croatia, which has observer status in the initiative. In December 1996, the American Administration invited Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Hungary, Macedonia, Moldavia, Romania, Slovenia and Turkey to participate in the SECI. The SECI, according to its co-ordinator, is in fact a "training camp" for closer regional co-operation and preparation for European associations. "We are a symbol of transition in the region. We are focusing on economy and technology, not politics. We are focusing on practical results", concluded Busek, adding that rumours about a new entity and new borders created by the initiative were nothing but "nonsense". The European Commission's special envoy, Per Vinther, spoke about the regional approach to the integration of the south-eastern Europe into European Union. Concerning Croatian aspirations to Euro-Atlantic associations, Vinther stressed that so far, its actions had failed to convince its international partners that it was seriously committed to enforcing reforms necessary for the realisation of these aspirations. Recalling the reasons for suspending negotiations with Croatia on the Trade and Co-operation Agreement and the Phare Programme in 1995, Vinther said that the EU was today ready to help Croatia fulfil conditions for renegotiations through "critical dialogue". The audience was also addressed by the British Embassy's First Secretary Anthony Mockton, who read the speech of the absent ambassador Colin Munroe, and by a consultant to the British Royal Institute for Strategic Studies, Chris Cviic. (hina) jn jfk/as 222138 MET may 98