Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), Hido Biscevic, and EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy, Stefan Fuele, agreed at their meeting in Brussels yesterday that the last week’s high level EU-Western Balkans meeting and recent activities of political leaders from South East Europe affirmed the EU perspective of all the countries of the region and opened a new chapter in the political relations, based on a full readiness to dialogue, rapprochement and mutual respect.

Secretary General Biscevic highlighted the significance of a persistent enlargement policy for a durable stability and cooperation in South East Europe.

“It is of a paramount importance to translate recent mutually reassuring commitments, undertaken both by the EU and by the countries in the region, into a set of coherent and elaborated policies that will sustain the present positive trends and turn them into a historically irreversible process”, said Biscevic. 

Recalling the Sarajevo meeting discussions, the two officials confirmed the need for the elaboration of a regional recovery and development strategy in the priority areas of RCC activities, such as economic and social development, infrastructure and energy.

Biscevic called for an even tighter cooperation between the European Commission and the RCC, “since regional cooperation is recognized as a focal element of EU enlargement and the RCC is ready to continue providing a platform for the implementation of initiatives and projects relevant for the EU policy towards the region”.

Secretary General Biscevic informed Commissioner Fuele of the new three-year RCC strategy for 2011-2013, expected to be adopted this month, and thanked him for the Commission’s active participation in its preparation.