SARAJEVO, April 21 (Hina) - The seventh summit of Southeastern Europe Cooperation Process (SEECP) member states ended in Sarajevo on Wednesday with the adoption of a joint declaration.
SARAJEVO, April 21 (Hina) - The seventh summit of Southeastern Europe
Cooperation Process (SEECP) member states ended in Sarajevo on
Wednesday with the adoption of a joint declaration.#L#
The Croatian delegation was led by Prime Minister Ivo Sanader, who
announced that his country would apply for full membership of the
SEECP programme.
The declaration, adopted by the presidents and prime ministers of nine
Southeastern European countries, said that processes aimed at
integrating this region with the European Union were developing
favourably and expressed hope that the enlargement of the European
Union would continue in line with the conclusions of the Council of
Europe of December 2003.
The document welcomed NATO's enlargement as well, and invited Zagreb,
Tirana and Skopje to continue cooperating closely within the Adriatic
Charter. It also expressed support to the ambitions of
Bosnia-Herzegovina and Serbia-Montenegro to join the Partnership for
Peace programme as soon as possible.
The SEECP leaders strongly condemned the recent violence in Kosovo,
and Albanian Prime Minister Fatos Nano told reporters that his country
also condemned any use of force and advocated dialogue as the only way
of resolving problems in Kosovo.
"I assure you that everyone can count on Albania's moderate role in
this," Nano said.
All the participants in the summit called for consolidating regional
cooperation in all areas, including the fight against terrorism and
organised crime, and strengthening economic and infrastructure
relations.
Romanian President Ion Iliescu said that the priority of his country
as the next president of the SEECP would be strengthening mutual
cooperation and making efforts to integrate the entire region of
Southeastern Europe with the European Union and NATO.
The President of Serbia and Montenegro, Svetozar Marovic,
congratulated Croatia on the positive opinion of the European
Commission about its application for membership of the European
Union.
"With that invitation we are all closer to the European Union and
Croatia's success is in a way a success of the whole region," Marovic
said, adding that what Croatia had achieved was a good sign to others
to take their obligations seriously.
Responding to the question as to when Bosnian Serb wartime military
leader Ratko Mladic, who is believed to be hiding in Serbia, could be
arrested, Marovic said that "it will not be tolerated for long for any
country to be held hostage by individuals charged with war crimes".
(Hina) vm