DEAR HEADS OF STATE AND GOVERNMENT,
DEAR MINISTERS,
YOUR EXCELLENCIES,
DEAR FRIENDS,
Welcome to ancient and beautiful Sofia. Twenty years ago, the South-East European Cooperation Process was launched in the capital of Bulgaria. Today we are here again to send a strong message to Europe and the world. A message about dialogue, understanding, good neighbourliness and cooperation, a message about peaceful and prosperous Balkans. We have achieved a lot together. We have turned our backs to prejudices, mistrust, and scepticism. Today we coin our common future together. We celebrate the 20th anniversary of the South-East European Cooperation Process, 20 years of cooperation and peaceful development on the Balkans. Bulgaria is proud to be one of the founders of this important international forum. Back then we were eight countries, today we are 13, representing a total of 150 million people. Back then there were conflicts and tension. Today we work for friendship and cooperation. Twenty years ago the gross domestic product of all Southeast European countries was 440 billion Euro, today it is three times higher. According to the International Monetary Fund, if we keep this rate of development, the region’s GDP will be 1,600 billion Euro in five years – a figure which will rank the region among the 10 top economies in the world.
Thank you for the respect you have demonstrated with the high level representation of the countries at today’s forum. This record high number of heads of state and government that have come together today clearly demonstrates the importance we all attach to the South-East European Cooperation Process.
The hall we are in is hardly the most representative conference venue in Sofia. However, I chose to be here because Sofia Tech is a symbol of Bulgaria and the Balkans. Of where we stood – this place used to be barracks; and of where we want to be – high technologies, entrepreneurship and cooperation between all countries in the region. I chose Sofia Tech because I used to march on these drill grounds and have my meals in this building. It used to be an army canteen, now it is The John Atanasoff Centre, named after the inventor of the first digital computer in the world. The person who invented the binary code and gave way to digital computers and technologies. In the past we were divided by an Iron Curtain, hounded on each other by the Great Powers for centuries. Now we stand together and we know that it is up to each and every one of us to guarantee peace and prosperity on the Balkans. The army drill grounds have given way to a tech park, laboratories, and entrepreneurship funds as an instrument and platform for regional cooperation. Today we stand together, and we have never been better friends and neighbours before. Never before have we enjoyed better trade relations. Never before has the number of tourists been so high. Never before have we been so connected and mutually interdependent and never before have we enjoyed a common perspective for a new horizon, for a democratic and European development. We realise as never before that crises, any crisis, go beyond our borders and we can only overcome those crises together. It is only by standing together that we can guarantee our energy independence and only together we can be a market that is big enough to be of interest to strategic investors.
Two decades ago the region was torn apart by mistrust, tension and conflicts. We do remember those ties all too well. Back then all of us were at the periphery of the enlarging European Union. Cooperation between us was not particularly significant.
Today we build bridges, highways and interconnectors, we produce and trade together, and we want borders to fall, not to move. Never before have the countries from the region been so well connected to the rest of Europe. Now is the time for us to also connect to each other. Never before have cooperation and good neighbourhood relations been such a decisive factor for positive development. European integration is the driving force for those positive development processes. Now Southeast Europe has the chance to develop and unfold its great potential.
Last year the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office of the South-East European Cooperation Process set ambitious goals. We have actively worked to improve connectedness in the region, strengthen democracy and civil societies, and deal with challenges in the field of security and migration. The SEECP foreign affairs ministers’ Joint Statement on Migration Challenges was an important achievement.
The Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office held intensive consultations with the Regional Cooperation Council as regards the elaboration of a regional platform to counteract radicalization and extremism.
Two high-level conferences, on energy security and infrastructure in Southeast Europe, were held. Within the framework of a high-level conference on the demographic challenges in the region the labour and social ministers endorsed a joint declaration.
Last year Bulgaria chaired not only the South-East European Cooperation Process but also the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. That provided an opportunity to align the priorities of the two forums. We consider the two strategic Council of Europe documents adopted at the Sofia Summits in April this year a huge diplomatic success. All 47 Member States of the Council of Europe united as one here in Sofia and thanks to the Bulgarian Chairmanship adopted unanimously an Action Plan 2016-2021 on strengthening judicial independence and impartiality as well as the Sofia Strategy for the Rights of the Child.
DEAR FRIENDS,
Europe today faces a record high number of crises affecting directly our region. Only together we can find the right solutions. Cooperation, partnership, the rule of law and human rights and freedoms are the only way leading to peace and prosperity in the region. Our region is an unavoidable geopolitical factor. Together we are stronger, more competitive, and more attractive to investors. Only together we can guarantee peace and prosperity to our peoples.
Thank you, welcome and happy anniversary!