Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe

Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe is an institution aimed at strengthening peace, democracy, human rights and economy in the countries of South Eastern Europe. The countries considered a part of this region are:

Creation

The pact was created at the initiative of the European Union on June 10, 1999 in Cologne. All of the countries of the region, except for Serbia and Montenegro (then FR Yugoslavia) and Moldova, were present at the founding conference. Representatives of Hungary, Romania, Russia, Turkey, USA, all members of the EU at the time, OSCE, Council of Europe and European Commission were also considered active participants.

Representatives of Canada, Japan, UN, UNHCR, NATO, OECD, WEU, IMF, World Bank, European Investment Bank and European Bank for Reconstruction and Development were present as facilitators.

The pact was created prior to the escalation of Kosovo War and stability of Kosovo was among the primary objectives.

Organization

The Special Coordinator is a head of the Stability Pact. Since 2002, the position is held by Erhard Busek.

The pact is divided among three Working Tables, with the fourth, Regional Working Table, coordinating actions between them.

Rights of minorities
Freedom of media
Civil society
Rule of law and law enforcement
Institutions, administration and governance
Refugees

Promotion of free trade areas
International transport
Energy supply and savings
Deregulation and transparency
Infrastructure
Promotion of private sector business
Environmental issues
Reintegration of refugees

Justice, home affairs and migration
Organized crime, corruption and terrorism
Transboundary environmental hazards
Cooperation on defence and military issues

	Working Table 1	Working Table 2	Working Table 3
Chair	Goran Svilanović	Fabrizio Saccomanni	Janez Premoze
Director	Marijana Grandits	Bernard Snoy	Pieter Verbeek
Main issues	Democratization and human rights	Economic reconstruction, development and cooperation	Security issues

Each of the Working Tables is responsible for a set of issues, working with participant countries' governments and NGOs on resolving them.

Achievements

Regional Table

Working Table 1

Consists of 5 task forces: [Education and Youth, Democracy and Cross Border Cooperation, Cooperation and Issues.

Apart from its Director WT I realies on the work of two experts Srdjan Cvijic and Talia Boati.

Working Table 2

Completed a matrix of bilateral free trade agreements (FTAs) between countries of the region.
- Kosovo is also participating (represented by UNMIK as per Security Council resolution 1244), but not all FTAs with it are ready yet.
- There is a proposal to unite the multiple FTAs (including full coverage of Kosovo) into a single free trade area (maybe by extension of CEFTA). Agreement is due to be signed by the first half of 2006.
Formation of a South-East Europe Regional Energy Market for electricity and natural gas. Participating are the countries of the region (without Moldova), Greece and Turkey.
- This process was also enchanced by the recent creation of a common European Energy Community between the EU and the countries of the region (without Moldova) and Kosovo. Turkey has delayed its participation with 6 months, because of problems with implementation of the environment parts of the acquis communautaire. Moldova, Ukraine and Norway are expected to join later.

Working Table 3

FTA Progress

Matrix of the Free Trade Agreements in the region.

		European Union associated					Other Stability pact partners							Other European Neighbourhood Policy partners
		EU	EFTA	Turkey CU	Bulgaria Acceding	Romania Acceding	Croatia	FYR Macedonia	Albania	Bosnia and Herzegovina	Serbia and Montenegro		Moldova	Ukraine	Georgia	Armenia	Azerbaijan
		EU	EFTA	Turkey CU	Bulgaria Acceding	Romania Acceding	Croatia	FYR Macedonia	Albania	Bosnia and Herzegovina	SiM	UNMIK¹	Moldova	Ukraine	Georgia	Armenia	Azerbaijan
EU			FTA 1973	CU 1996	EA 1995	EA 1995	SAA 2005	SAA 2004	SAA	SAA	SAA	?
EFTA		FTA 1973		FTA 1992	FTA 1993	FTA 1993	FTA 2002	FTA 2001				?
Turkey CU		CU 1996	FTA 1992		FTA 1999	FTA 1998	FTA 2003	FTA 2000	?	FTA 2003	?	?
Bulgaria		EA 1995	FTA 1993	FTA 1999		CEFTA 1999	CEFTA 2003	SEE-FTA 2000 CEFTA 2006	SEE-FTA 2003	SEE-FTA 2004	SEE-FTA 2004	SEE-FTA	SEE-FTA 2004
Romania		EA 1995	FTA 1993	FTA 1998	CEFTA 1999		CEFTA 2003	SEE-FTA 2004 CEFTA 2006	SEE-FTA 2004	SEE-FTA 2004	SEE-FTA 2004	SEE-FTA	FTA 1994
Croatia		SAA 2005	FTA 2002	FTA 2003	CEFTA 1999	CEFTA 2003		SEE-FTA 2002 CEFTA 2006	SEE-FTA 2003	SEE-FTA 2005	SEE-FTA 2004	SEE-FTA	SEE-FTA 2004
FYR Macedonia		SAA 2004	FTA 2001	FTA 2000	SEE-FTA 2000 CEFTA 2006	SEE-FTA 2004 CEFTA 2006	SEE-FTA 2002 CEFTA 2006		SEE-FTA 2002	SEE-FTA 2002	SEE-FTA 2006	SEE-FTA 2006	SEE-FTA 2005
Albania		SAA		?	SEE-FTA 2003	SEE-FTA 2004	SEE-FTA 2003	SEE-FTA 2002		SEE-FTA 2004	SEE-FTA 2004	SEE-FTA 2003	SEE-FTA 2004
Bosnia and Herzegovina		SAA		FTA 2003	SEE-FTA 2004	SEE-FTA 2004	SEE-FTA 2005	SEE-FTA 2002	SEE-FTA 2004		SEE-FTA 2002	SEE-FTA 2006	SEE-FTA 2004
Serbia and Montenegro	SiM	SAA		?	SEE-FTA 2004	SEE-FTA 2004	SEE-FTA 2004	SEE-FTA 2006	SEE-FTA 2004	SEE-FTA 2002			SEE-FTA 2004
Serbia and Montenegro	UNMIK¹	?	?	?	SEE-FTA	SEE-FTA	SEE-FTA	SEE-FTA 2006	SEE-FTA 2003	SEE-FTA 2006			?
Moldova					SEE-FTA 2004	FTA 1994	SEE-FTA 2004	SEE-FTA 2005	SEE-FTA 2004	SEE-FTA 2004	SEE-FTA 2004	?				FTA 1995
Ukraine															FTA 1996	FTA 1996
Georgia														FTA 1996		FTA 1998	FTA 1996
Armenia													FTA 1995	FTA 1996	FTA 1998
Azerbaijan															FTA 1996

¹ representing Kosovo as per Security Council resolution 1244.

External links

Official Website
^*-the Stability Pact Initiative against organised crime

Balkans | International relations

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