The President was host of the jubilee summit of SEECP under the title “SEECP – 20 years key to regional cooperation”
The participants in the jubilee summit of the Southeast European Cooperation Process agreed on the necessity to continue the processes of European and Euro-Atlantic integration in the region. Head of State Rosen Plevneliev was host of the top-level forum, which was held in the Sofia Tech Park scientific and technological park.
The state and government leaders, and also the foreign ministers of the SEECP countries discussed key issues for the region and focused on European integration, energy security, migration and the fight against radicalization and terrorism. The leaders unanimously adopted the jubilee declaration from Sofia “SEECP – 20 years key to regional cooperation.”
“The European project will not be complete until all Western Balkan countries join the EU. We will continue to work together for the establishment of active civil societies, which will assist the democratic processes in the region,” the Bulgarian Head of State said at a joint news conference with the President of Albania Bujar Nishani and Croatian Foreign Minister Miro Kovac, whose country will take over from Bulgaria the rotating chairmanship-in-office of the established format for regional political dialogue.
The improvement of the regional infrastructure and connectivity were defined as a strategic priority for the development of Southeastern Europe. “The EU is planning to invest almost 50 billion euros in the region up to 2020. In the next couple of years 1,2 billion euros will be invested via the programs for improving the cross-border cooperation.
We should make reasonable use of these resources so as to considerably improve the connectivity among our countries and to strengthen the already existing partnerships, and also establish new ones,” President Rosen Plevneliev said.
The participants in the summit defined energy dependence as one of the main challenges the region is facing. “This dependence makes us quite vulnerable and endangers the security of each country. Only together can we solve this problem. We should work to ensure the integration of the energy markets in the region and the establishment of a state-of-the-art and reliable regional energy infrastructure. Bulgaria is one of the engines of the formation of a common regional energy market,” the Bulgarian President highlighted.
Finding new sustainable and innovative approaches to coping with the migration processes was outlined as a key issue of regional cooperation. “It is unacceptable, impossible and unrealistic for each country to cope with the migration crisis on its own. We reached an agreement to intensively exchange information among each other, to pool efforts in this direction and to observe the rules for a humane attitude to the asylum-seekers. At the same time all countries in the region should be uncompromising in the fight against the human smuggling channels,” President Plevneliev said.
The Head of State recalled the achievements of the Bulgarian chairmanship-in-office of SEECP and highlighted Sofia’s efforts to bring in line the priorities of the Process and those of the Bulgarian chairmanship of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe. During the top-level conference held in Sofia in April a consensus was reached on the Council of Europe Plan for strengthening the independence and impartiality of the judiciary in the period 2016 –2021. Two months ago again in Sofia Bulgarian diplomacy achieved success by adopting the Council of Europe Strategy for the rights of the child. A serious success of the Bulgarian chairmanship-in-office was the Joint statement made by the foreign ministers to cope with the migration flows, the Head of State recalled.
Two top-level forums were also held which focused on energy security and the infrastructure in Southeastern Europe, and also a top-level conference on the demographic challenges in the region during which the labor and social policy ministers adopted a Joint declaration.
“The challenges we are facing are global and require a coordinated approach. Today cooperation is not a matter of choice, but of necessity,” the president was adamant. Rosen Plevneliev further said that Bulgaria is ready to offer support to its regional partners and wished success of Croatia’s forthcoming chairmanship.
“In Sofia we made a big step ahead toward ensuring good-neighborliness and friendliness in the region,” the Bulgarian Head of State summarized.
“We have achieved a lot in 20 years, which we take pride in. We made efforts to achieve our strategic goals – we expanded the Euro-Atlantic space in the region. On the basis of the documents we have adopted in the past we can reconfirm our common efforts for peace, stability and prosperity. The connectivity in the energy, transport and infrastructure sectors remains a main priority,” Albanian President Bujar Nishani said on the occasion of the end of the Bulgarian chairmanship-in-office of SEECP and the 20th anniversary of the initiated by Sofia format of political dialogue.
Croatian Foreign Minister Miro Kovac, for his part, highly appreciated the achievements of the Bulgarian chairmanship-in-office of SEECP. “Croatia will try to be at least as efficient as Bulgaria was,” Kovac assured. The Croatian chairmanship-in-office of SEECP will focus on the challenges related to the migration crisis, the transport and telecommunications connectivity and also on a stronger political dialogue, including a parliamentary one.
The main priorities of the Croatian chairmanship-in-office that Miro Kovac highlighted were science and education, energy and energy security and response to crisis, including the participation of the armed forces in humanitarian operations. Croatia will also work so as to ensure efficient measures to fight radicalism and terrorism, Minister Kovac further informed.