| Gordan Jandrokovic, Dimitris Droutsas, Péter Balázs and Vuk Jeremic, the Foreign Ministers of the Republics of Croatia, Greece, Hungary and Serbia, respectively, held a quadrilateral meeting in Budapest on 29 March, 2010. They acknowledged that the Western Balkans countries were given perspective of EU membership in Zagreb in 2000 and in Thessaloniki in 2003. They expressed their support for other initiatives aimed at enhancing the regional cooperation. In a few years time Europe will mark the 100th anniversary of the breakout of the First World War that brought so much misery to our continent. 2014 should, indeed, serve as a symbolic milestone for the countries of the region on their path towards the EU. Our countries and our generation have a historical responsibility to make sure that European values, which have put to rest the spectre of conflicts in the European Union, bring reconciliation, regional co-operation and good-neighbourly relations. The governments of the Western Balkan countries have no other credible alternative but to work together if they wish to overcome the many, yet unresolved issues with the EU standing by to assist as needed. The enlargement process of the EU will continue to be based on the fulfilment of criteria and the achievements of each and every applicant. Ten years after the Zagreb summit the progress of each country in the region is different and Croatia is expecting to finish the negotiation process during 2010. Our countries, as well as all states in the region, must make their utmost to ensure on an individual, as well as on a collective basis, that the integration process moves ahead underpinned by real performance and changes on the ground. As a result of that, differences between and among countries of the region will decrease, bringing the Western Balkans as a whole closer to the European Union.
People-to-people contact is an important and helpful step in further democratization of the region and in that context we very much welcome the EU decision on visa-liberalisation for the citizens of FYROM, Montenegro and Serbia on 19 December 2009 was an essential and successful step in the stabilization of the region. Since Albania and B-H are making honest and concentrated efforts to comply with the visa road-map, the EU - once these countries have met the necessary criteria - should move ahead in the visa-liberalisation process. The European Union could act as an anchor of development of these countries, by extending Europe’s infrastructure of roads, railways and energy networks to the Western Balkans. This connection will bring them closer to the European Single Market before the date of their future accession. This is all the more necessary because the region is already an enclave inside the territory of the EU. The Summit meeting in Budapest on the Danube Strategy of the EU on 25 of February, 2010 confirmed that the river could serve as a central axis of regional transport with all communication lines linked up to it. European transport can only be handled through a regional approach, as demonstrated by the success of Trans-European Networks. Corridors V. and X. already link the EU and the Western Balkan countries along various routes in the current motorway and railway network. However, the density of the transport network in the Western Balkans seriously lags behind other parts of Europe. The forthcoming establishment of Transport Community in South-East Europe should facilitate the development of an appropriate infrastructure in the region and its connections with the rest of Europe. The V4 Energy Summit in Budapest on 24 February, 2010 carried the message that energy security of the EU needs also cooperation with the Central-South-Eastern European countries. Pollution knows no boundaries making environment another trans-border issue between the EU and the Western Balkans. The 2014-2020 financial framework of the EU should pay special attention to the potential benefits offered by the extension of various TENs to the Western-Balkans. The forthcoming Hungarian EU Presidency in 2011 will propose to invite Western Balkan ministers as observers to the informal meetings of EU Councils related to issues with beyond-the-EU implications (e.g. transport, energy etc.). The European integration of the Western Balkan region, as also envisaged in Agenda 2014, will be of top priority in the agenda of the next Greek EU Presidency in 2014. Budapest, 13 April 2010 |