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Ekaterina Zaharieva Addresses Southeast European Counterparts: The Lessons of the Crisis Will Make us More United and Stronger

25 June 2020 News

“The COVID-19 crisis was unprecedented and we have all paid a high price: we lost lives and our economies suffered. This crisis has demonstrated that now we need close cooperation and multilateralism more than we ever did in the past. These lessons will make us more united and stronger,” Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs Ekaterina Zaharieva said at a video conference with the foreign ministers of the South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) countries.

The foreign ministers reviewed the achievements in the area of regional cooperation in the past year and outlined ways to develop it further in connection with overcoming the socio-economic repercussions of the COVID-19 crisis. The event marked the end of Kosovo’s presidency of the format, which should come on 30 June officially.

Ekaterina Zaharieva praised the work of Kosovo’s outgoing presidency with, focusing on connectivity, youth, culture and tourism, and noted that Bulgaria’s joint presidency with the Republic of North Macedonia of the Berlin Process focused on similar priorities. She highlighted connectivity and the improvement of contacts between people, particularly between younger generations, as a guarantee for the development and prosperity of the region. Minister Zaharieva announced that efforts were underway to organize a summit within the framework of the Berlin Process in Sofia. She expressed her hopes that the meeting would take place during autumn.

Bulgaria’s Minister of Foreign Affairs noted that during the crisis the European Union has supported Western Balkan countries with EUR 3.3 billion and Bulgaria has sent medical equipment to its neighbors, i.e. the Eastern Partnership and Southern Neighborhood countries. “It is in times like these that you understand who is your friend and on whom you can really rely,” Zaharieva said.

She went on to add that despite the current COVID-19 crisis there had been positive developments concerning the region since the last meeting in Sarajevo, which took place in 2018. In March, the EU decided to launch accession talks with the Republic of North Macedonia and Albania and the Republic of North Macedonia became NATO’s newest member.

Ekaterina Zaharieva thanked the Regional Cooperation Council headed by Majlinda Bregu for its active role in setting up green corridors for the transportation of basic amenities in the Western Balkans. The Bulgarian Foreign Minister also congratulated her Turkish counterpart Mevlut Cavusoglu on the upcoming presidency of the SEECP, which Turkey is due to take over on 1 July.

Bulgaria was the initiator of setting up of the SEECP as a key political format for dialogue in the region. The initiative was launched at the Sofia meeting of the foreign ministers of the countries of southeast Europe (6-7 July 1996), which adopted the Sofia Declaration on Good-neighborly Relations, Stability, Security, and Cooperation in the Balkans.

The countries participating in the SEECP include Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, the Republic of North Macedonia, Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Slovenia, Serbia and Turkey. A compromise was reached at the SEECP foreign ministers meeting in Bucharest on 20 June 2014 on Kosovo’s full participation in the process.

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