A summit of the South-East European Cooperation Process /SEECP/ took place in the end of last week in Dubrovnik, Croatia. The process was founded 21 years ago with the decisive participation of Bulgaria and today it is an up-to-date format for regional cooperation between countries with overall population of 150 mln. people. The latest summit had several major features that Bulgaria had attitude to, being not only part of the region, but also a EU and NATO member-state. This dual quality of the country influenced seriously the participation of the Bulgarian delegation in the Dubrovnik-held forum.

Right now the region of the Western Balkans has its historical chance for rehabilitation on the global stage. After continuous fatigue due to enlargement processes, now the EU once again talks about the integration of the region. However, it sets the prerequisite of restricting nationalistic rhetoric, anti-democratic abuse and corruption. That is how we should view the statement of Bulgarian PM Boyko Borissov that the acceleration of the Euro-Atlantic perspective of the Western Balkans /Albania, Bosnia, Kosovo, Macedonia, Montenegro and Serbia/ required that their political elites turned their backs on history, leaving behind the discrepancy heritage of the past. According to Borissov that means more solidarity and understanding between the Balkan states and ceasing of talks about conflicts, wars and ethnic cleansings, at the same time increasing the efforts for better business partnership.

Croatia took over from Bulgaria the rotational presidency of SEECP on 1 July 2016 for a period of one year. Slovenia is the next president of the Process. Pointing out that there were arguments on who should take over after Slovenia and Bosnia and Herzegovina, PM Borissov asked how the region could talk about its EU and NATO accession, if it was unable to cope with the simple SEECP presidency. Mr. Borissov insisted before Serbian President Alexander Vučić that Kosovo should take over the presidency.

In Dubrovnik Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva accentuated on the view that today the efforts inside SEECP should be aimed at the necessity of activation of the cooperation in three major directions – transport, energy and social policies. The Sofia delegation paid attention on the fact that while Bulgaria was developing its infrastructure connections with Turkey, Serbia and Greece in a rapid manner, the western part of the peninsula remained aside from the priorities. According to the Bulgarian side, the development of transport infrastructure would enhance competitiveness, increase the mobility of services and the energy projects would contribute to the sustainable development of the whole region, while the coordination of the social policies would also make the region more attractive for foreign investments.

The different meetings, carried out under the SEECP are usually good occasions for bilateral talks between top officials from the region. Foreign Minister Ekaterina Zaharieva now talks in Dubrovnik with her counterparts from Kosovo - Enver Hoxhaj; Croatia - Marija Burić; Serbia – Ivica Dacic and Macedonia – Nikola Dimitrov.

Bulgaria’s next responsibility under the SEECP is due in November, when it is going to host in Sofia a meeting of experts from the social ministries.

English version: Zhivko Stanchev