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.