The objective of Regional
Cooperation in Southeast Europe: The Bulgarian Perspective is
to present an expert analytical response to the political and
institutional opportunities that arose due to the institutional
arrangements and mechanisms of implementing the Stability Pact for
Southeastern Europe “on the ground”. The study is the result of
a project supported through a grant from the German Marshall Fund of the
United States.
The commitment of the European Union and
other international organizations outlined in the Pact provides a
crucial opportunity for accelerated economic and political/social
reforms in a stable regional environment and in the context of the
accession process. The Pact provides the political and
institutional framework of transforming the region into an integral
part of the Euro-Atlantic structures. The Pact is a unique platform
brining together international organizations and countries from
Western Europe and the United States with the states in the region
of Southeast Europe.
The paper does not provide an exhaustive coverage of
Stability Pact project areas - a task completed through various
other mechanisms elsewhere – but rather an emphasis of the common
approaches still missing in the implementation of Pact objectives,
as seen from a Bulgarian perspective. The paper thus opted for
highlighting an aspect that could be seen as obvious but whose
acknowledgment is not supported by practical measures – the need
for common solutions to regional stabilization and development
initiated and worked out by the countries themselves.
In preparation of the study the Center for the Study
of Democracy hosted a Round Table on “Accession to the European
Union and the Stability Pact: Obstacles and Opportunities for
Bulgaria and the Region.” The meeting was a part of the visit of
the Working Group on the Balkan Economies at the United
States Council on Foreign Relations, led by Michael Froman,
former Chief of Staff at the US Department of the Treasury.
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