Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe
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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.
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[edit] Membership
- Member partners:
- Observers:
- Supporting partners:
- Japan
- Norway
- Russia
- Switzerland
- United States
- European Union member states
- Multiple international organizations [1].
[edit] 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 subsequent to the escalation of Kosovo War and stability of Kosovo was among the primary objectives.
In 2006 it was announced that in early 2008 the Stability Pact should be succseeded by a more regionally owned co-operation framework, the Regional Co-operation Council (RCC) formed by the countries of the region themselves, but with continued support and advice from the international community. The Southeast European Cooperation Process should be playing an important role in this process.
[edit] 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.
Working Table 1 | Working Table 2 | Working Table 3 | |
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Chair | Goran Svilanović | Fabrizio Saccomanni | Janez Premoze |
Director | Marijana Grandits | Laurent Guye | Pieter Verbeek |
Main issues | Democratization and human rights
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Economic reconstruction, development and cooperation
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Security issues
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Each of the Working Tables is responsible for a set of issues, working with participant countries' governments and NGOs on resolving them.
[edit] Achievements
[edit] Regional Table
[edit] Working Table 1
Consists of 5 task forces: [Media], [Education and Youth], [Local Democracy and Cross Border Cooperation], [Parliamentary Cooperation] and [Gender Issues].
Apart from its Director WT I realies on the work of two experts Srđan Cvijić and Talia Boati.
[edit] 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 was 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 member partners of the pact (without Moldova) as well as Greece and Turkey.
- This process was also enchanced by the recent creation of a common European Energy Community between the EU and the countries participating in the pact (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.
[edit] Working Table 3
[edit] FTA Progress
Matrix of the Free Trade Agreements in the region.
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(to be merged into CEFTA) |
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Bulgaria Acceding |
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EU | FTA 1973 | CU 1996 | EA 1995 | EA 1995 | SAA 2005 | SAA 2004 | SAA | SAA | SAA | STM | |||||||
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 2006 | SEE-FTA 2004 | ||||||
Republic of 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 | |||||||
UNMIK1 | STM | ? | ? | SEE-FTA | SEE-FTA | SEE-FTA 2006 | 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.
██ instrument and year of entry into force ██ instrument and year of provisional entry into force ██ in negotiations ██ strained diplomatic relations over Kosovo (SiM–UNMIK), Nagorno-Karabakh (Armenia–Azerbaijan) or the Armenian Genocide (Armenia–Turkey)
[edit] See also
- European Union Association Agreement
- European Neighbourhood Policy
- Euro-Mediterranean free trade area
- Southeast European Cooperation Process (SEECP)
- Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA)
- Central European Initiative (CEI)
- Southeast European Cooperative Initiative (SECI)
- Black Sea Economic Co-operation (BSEC)