Stability Pact Co-ordinator welcomes intensified co-operation with OSCE

VIENNA, 12 October 2001 (OSCE) - Bodo Hombach, Special Co-ordinator of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, has welcomed the further intensification of co-operation between OSCE and Stability Pact in the past year.

Speaking to the Permanent Council of the 55 OSCE participating States yesterday, Mr. Hombach said: "I am grateful for the leading part that the OSCE has played in several Stability Pact initiatives - for example, with regard to the combating of trafficking in human beings, gender questions and the implementation of Annex 1-B of the Dayton Agreement".

Mr. Hombach, who announced that he would lay down his functions as Special Co-ordinator at the end of this year, informed the Permanent Council about the planned second Regional Stability Pact Conference to be held in Bucharest on 25 and 26 October.

"This Conference, which will be held at ministerial level, will provide an opportunity for political dialogue between the States of south-east Europe and the donor community", Mr. Hombach said. In this context, the Stability Pact Co-ordinator underlined the importance of "regional ownership" in the stabilization process.

Mr. Hombach also stressed that a new element in the Regional Conference will be the increased involvement of the private sector in reconstruction and stabilization efforts for South-East Europe.

Summarizing the achievements of the Stability Pact since the last OSCE Ministerial Council meeting in December 2000, Mr. Hombach focussed on five important developments:

• Of the Quick Start Package adopted at the Brussels Conference one year ago, where a total of 2.4 billion euros had been pledged, 82 per cent or 201 projects out of a total of 244 have begun to be implemented;
• On 27 June, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Romania, the former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia and Yugoslavia signed a Memorandum of Understanding on Trade Liberalization and Facilitation. The aim is a complete network of free trade agreements between the seven States by the year 2002, creating a market of 55 million consumers;
• On the same day, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia and the Federal Republic of Yugoslavia agreed in Brussels on an "Agenda for Regional Action", brokered by the Stability Pact, which is a return agenda for up to 1.2 million refugees and internally displaced persons;
• The Regional Table, the highest policy-making body of the Stability Pact, decided on 28 June in favour of a stronger focusing of the Stability Pact on certain priorities for each of the three Working Tables, permitting the Stability Pact to concentrate more on the promotion of regional co-operation;
• This summer, the Parliamentary Assemblies of the OSCE and the Council of Europe as well as the European Parliament assumed the role of sponsors of activities across the three Working Tables, a development particularly welcomed by Mr. Hombach.