The Stability Pact is organized around three working tables. Working Table 1, that I chair, deals with human rights and democracy; Working Table 2 which deals with economic development; and Working Table 3 which deals with security challenges and issues related to security matters. These are the three elements of the Stability Pact.

　

 For the last several years I have been very often invited to speak about the Stability Pact but more often about the issues that have not yet been resolved in the region. Also most recently I was involved in a project dealing with some other regions. I was a member of the International Commission on the Balkans which has launched in April 2005 to address what to do with the Balkans. It was chaired by Giuliano Amato, former prime minister of Italy. Members of his commission are people who are known to you, Carl Bildt, the former prime minister of Sweden and currently foreign minister of Sweden, Kemal Dervis, who was formerly deputy prime minister of Turkey. He is at this moment head of UNDP so he is having a very prominent role and might be our ally in the program that we might work out together. So I was honored to be a member of this International Commission of the Balkans which prepared a report on what to do with the Balkans, that is, how to resolve persisting issues.

　

 I was recently invited to join another new development think-tank on development policy. It is called European Policy Forum. Many people are there and we are dealing with problems of the EU and the immediate neighborhood of the EU−how far to go with development policy, what should be the EU policy for the countries in the neighborhood.

　

 Very recently I was invited to be part of another project dealing with Kosovo, it is Kosovo Effect Group. The main basis of what we are discussing is how to deal with the repercussion and consequence of status negotiations of Kosovo to some other areas in the world such as Georgia, Ukraine and Moldova. Basically we are trying to help those in international communities who are making decisions to have all elements in mind for Kosovo, also to see what might be the consequences on other unsolved matters elsewhere.

　

 Going back to the Stability Pact... Since Stability Pact was formed in 1999. These governments the SEE countries became aware of how important it is to cooperate on the regional level in order to bring all of them closer to the EU. Regional cooperation is important particularly when it comes to economy, infrastructure, development, trade, but also in fields of security and disaster prevention, and problems faced by those who are seeking asylum, or refugees in the future.

　

 The basic idea and something that paves the way to our success in the Stability Pact, is the European perspective. If there was no European perspective it would be very, very difficult to achieve the results. This is why I'm very often asked what we can do about the Middle East, and whether we can have something like the Stability Pact for the Middle East, or even more often can we have a Stability Pact with EU or Euro-Asia issues around the Black Sea. It's very difficult to say yes because what brought all of these countries together, what made their leaders being decisive in narrowing and furthering this cooperation, was that they are all in the same process which should bring them finally into the EU.

　

 This is why only some of the experiences that I, or people who have worked with me, have had over the last several years could be put into use in other areas of the world. But I still believe that there is a possibility to introduce some of these experiences because what do we do, for instance, in the field of local democracy and cross-border cooperation is applicable to other regions.

　

 In terms of local democracy there is the Council of Europe, another very important European organization, trying to help countries in the region to further decentralize, not only in terms of territorial decentralization but empowering municipalities, cities or regions, to take over more and more responsibilities from central authorities.

　

 For a period of around six months last year I was appointed both by the Council of Europe and the Stability Pact as kind of traveling ambassador to prepare a regional conference of the ministers for decentralization. It was very successfully organized in Skopje in November 2006. Basically other ministers from the region agreed on their national plans on how to fully decentralize. I traveled to all these countries and talked to every minister to see the results, and I also discussed with their vision for decentralization. Matters are different. Not all the problems are equal, and therefore they had different ideas on how they should continue with the decentralization process. But we came to a conclusion, we rather solved it together. That is, that there is a possibility to go into a second phase of decentralization, and this becomes more and more complex in the fields of education and health.

　

 When it comes to cross-border cooperation, we are basically trying to improve cooperation between the countries in the region because very often these people who live along the borders have different ethnic backgrounds from the main population in the country, they are minorities. Also, they have relatives on the other side of the border... Therefore, we try to address the border issue and we also try to encourage cooperation between universities in these areas because what was happening is that people were fleeing from the border regions. Economically they were not really a priority for the central authorities and we tried, and are still trying, through cross-border cooperation projects, to encourage central authorities to work closely with their immediate neighbor just across the border, and they are very much interested. People living along the borders would like to improve because they are faced with daily problems.

　

 When it comes to gender, we are very proud that in the last seven years there has been a huge improvement in the participation of women in politics. We are trying to push that at least 30 percent of MPs on every political party's list should be women. It was not easy in 1999, it was not easy in 2000, but for instance in Serbia there will be general elections in 2007, next Sunday, and many political parties have signed non-binding obligation with us that they are trying to have at least 30 percent, if not more, women on their lists and more in parliament. There have been results. This is a fact. South Eastern Europe has changed tremendously because only several years ago we didn't have that many women, but we now have more women in politics, and women who are not only ministers but who are very respected and who do have results in what they do. This is really a substantial change if you see it in the Balkans and South Eastern Europe. I can say that we are proud that this is also partially at least a result of the Stability Pact.

　

 I mentioned parliamentary cooperation and education; our two core objectives. I would like to say a few more words about parliamentary cooperation and education. The dream we have on parliamentary cooperation is to go as far as developing a regional parliamentary assembly for the SEE. I think we can tackle it. We are now working closely with MPs of the region and heads of different committees. The MPs are trying to raise funds from the foundations, EU and non-EU countries, to empower parliamentary work in every country. MPs are deciding on very different issues − health, education, science, economy, security or other issues − and they are trying to tackle all of these challenges, and issues, while organizing a chain with other MPs from the region, and that's spreading the cooperation which now goes beyond governments cooperating with each other. Governments are only part of the political scene; we are trying to broaden it.

　

 Regarding education, in May last year we decided to have education as our core objective but have redesigned it. It is now called "building and fostering human capital". I'm sorry if you don't like the word "capital" but what we tried to do was to broaden it. It is also about science and research and youth policies. Almost no government has a minister responsible for youth issues. There is very often a split between the minister of education and minister of science. Therefore it was very good for me to listen to the Honorable Minister of Education of the Danish Government this morning who some years ago was Minister for Science and Technology, but he at this moment is the Minister for Education and Ecclesiastical Affairs. He seems to be a person who knows quite a lot about the issue, and it was very inspiring for me to listen to him and the experiences that he has had as an official and minister in Denmark. I dare to say that at this moment it seems that Denmark should be more engaged in SEE in cooperation with the Stability Pact in the field of education. Fostering and building human capital is something that we are going to continue working in this region of Europe.

　

 As I said earlier, the Stability Pact was formed by EU and non-EU countries so, in a way, it was a top-down approach. At the Regional Table meeting which was held in Belgrade in May 2006, we adopted report that was prepared by the so-called Senior Review Group, formed in 1999. This report recommended the phasing out of the Stability Pact and be replaced by a Regional Cooperation Council.

　

 We were inspired by the 50 year-long experience of Nordic cooperation. Perhaps, we may be able to establish a Southeastern dimension of the European Union. The minimalist approach was that the Stability Pact was there to help these countries in their stabilization process, eventually joining the EU. We believe that even after each and every country from the region is in the EU, there will still be room for them to cooperate on a regional level.

　

 So what we have decided is to narrow down the cooperation from the current 25 initiatives to 5 fields of cooperation: infrastructure development, trade on a regional level, security, education, and parliamentary cooperation to end up with a parliamentary assembly for the region.

　

 So this is where I am in the middle of the process; the decision to appoint a chair of this organization needs to be made by May 2007 and we should also discuss where to put the seat in the region. There are three candidates: Belgrade, Sarajevo and Podgorica. By the end of this year we are going to have a Regional Cooperation Council in place instead of the Stability Pact, and we still are supposed to have continuous cooperation with EU member countries and the friends of the Stability Pact − Japan, USA, Canada, Switzerland and Norway − but we hope to have more genuine ownership of this process by countries in the region. If this transition is completed before the end of 2007, or January 2008, I'll be very happy because we will have something which was organized top-down by others, now run fully and full-heartedly by the region.

　

 I think we can end with the Balkans. In real terms I think the Balkan states, including Romania and Bulgaria which have just joined the EU, are progressing towards membership. These countries may be able to substantially cooperate in several fields even after they are in the EU, with some kind of lobby when they are in the EU, and further their interest to this organization. What I've said about human capital is a field in which I believe we are matching out the SYLFF Program and the Stability Pact.

　

 What are we doing? We are promoting vocational training, we are promoting lifelong learning. All the issues have been mentioned this morning by the Honorable Minister. We are trying also to somehow work closely with the labor market, follow what's up in the labor market, and on top of all of this we are promoting a concept of "education for democratic citizenship" (EDC). EDC is crucial for the region because this region in the heart of Europe is faced with globalization challenges and somehow it is not always easy to recognize the problem. If you ask people here on the streets whether they are in favor of allowing Serbia into the EU, many of them will say NO. If you talk to people in Paris they will very often say NO. They formally said no in the referendum. If you talk to people in The Netherlands and other countries, Germany for example, they are worried and not sure where to go from where they are now with the whole concept of the EU as a political union or as a free trade area.

　

 Briefly, it is a result of recent understanding that jobs of people in EU member countries are affected or jeopardized by people coming from the Balkans. They are faced with globalization challenges, and as the Minister was explaining this morning and I am grateful for this. Much of the production of goods go to China, but that's a process and we should start living with it and try to find something else in other regions of the world, including the EU.

　

 When it comes to services, many jobs go to India and this is also a challenge. It is not the EU being affected by the Balkans. It is both the EU and Balkans and other areas of the world being in the middle of the process which is called globalization, and this process is huge and we should try to learn how to live with this process. I believe that part of the answer to this question is education for democratic citizenship because if you talk to scholars in Serbia, and there was research there, that showed that more than 70 percent of the people in Serbia who are students have never been abroad, but it's not only them that have never been abroad. We are talking about people who were raised during the wars and have been affected by the consequences of the war and have never even been to Bosnia or Croatia, not to mention Paris or London or Tokyo. These are the people who should be driving this country into whatever future. These are the people who in five or ten years will be in the offices, and without this experience, without really touching the Eiffel Tower and not only watching it on CNN or BBC, I think that they will not be able to understand why is it so important to deal with war crimes, why is it so important to punish those who are responsible. Politicians are facing this problem. We decide to arrest someone and send him/her to the tribunal and people do not understand why it is so.

　

 We believe that in the process of education we can address all of these issues. In the process of education we can not only address the issue of the recent past, we can address globalization challenges, and we can also address the issue of reforming the countries from the region. This is why we believe that the process of the Stability Pact, launched as the building of human capital for the region, is a very important point, and this is why we invite both the Tokyo and Nippon Foundations to closely work with us because we are trying to develop mobility. Mobility is understood by the majority of young researchers as offering them possibilities to study in Tokyo, Paris or London. We understand this, but we would like to introduce a program which would be, at least for six months, mobility within the region, so if you are a young student in Serbia, go and see what's up in Bulgaria. It is only 500 kilometers away, spend six months, see your colleagues in Bulgaria, and then spend six months in Paris. We are trying to introduce this problem of mobility within the region to spread the network of young leaders in the region. I believe this should be a program, a scholarship, maybe for six months within the region and then an additional six months in the best universities worldwide. Then we can have a network of people who know each other region-wide, and this would serve the purpose of the Regional Cooperation Council.

　

 Before I close I would like to say that when it comes to leadership it is very important to continue to "dance, dance, dance" as noted in a book written by the famous Haruki Murakami, Japanese author. Leaders sometimes need to simply go forward, just dance, do not even think. If you are tempted with the cause that you have followed, just go for it and you can get there. Haruki Murakami also wrote Kafka on the Shore, playing with the taboos. Leadership also means to face and to break taboos.

　

 I myself have been dealing with some taboos while working with the International Commission of the Balkans where there is the issue of the new status of Kosovo. Should it be independent or not? Of course, some politicians say it is taboo, but I think that we should all try to be true. We have to follow these temptations, to go and break taboos, and live with the consequences, and only then can we share our experiences the way that these experiences have been shared by another author that I would like to mention today, and this is someone coming from my region, a Turk, this year's Nobel Prize winner, Orhan Pamuk. In his famous book My name is Red, he is trying to introduce the intertwining of civilizations. He is dealing and explaining how Venetian culture affected the huge Ottoman Empire in one small group of people who are dealing with art, how a new development in the arts in a totally different part of the globe has influenced authors of Ottoman background dealing with calligraphy, writing and painting. I think that this would be very good for me, together with Murakami, to put Orhan Pamuk and his attempt to show how important it is that sometimes this intertwining brings crime, compassion, fight and treason, but also develops understanding of what the world is about, and at the end of the day it is not a clash but the life of all civilizations and intertwining civilizations, and reaches your life and your heart. I think that, thanks to the attempts of this Foundation, in more than 69 universities worldwide in 45 countries it is possible to share and enrich by learning from others, by seeing what is their experience, by seeing what is their knowledge, and I would like to express my gratitude for the opportunity to address you this afternoon but, more than that, the opportunity I had to travel around and to talk with people about the Balkans and to learn about their experiences because that would be precious for my future goal in the Balkans.

　

 Thank you.