2004 Summit of Prime Ministers
of the Central European Initiative
Portorose, Slovenia, 25
November 2004
Statement by Ms. Brigita
Schmögnerová,
Executive Secretary
Mr. Prime Minister, Excellencies, Distinguished
Delegates, Ladies and Gentlemen,
I thank the CEI Presidency
for inviting UNECE to the 2004 Summit of
the CEI celebrating its 15th anniversary.
UNECE welcomes this opportunity to support
CEI’s efforts to bring the countries
of Central and Eastern Europe closer together
through its political commitments and an
ambitious CEI Plan of Action 2004-2006.
The UNECE shares your goal to integrate
the remaining countries with economies in
transition into the European economy. I
believe that the UNECE is in a good position
to actively support these economies to adopt
the economic and structural reforms needed
to reduce the development gap between countries
and provide the prerequisites for integration
into the European economy.
Today, the new political
map provides new challenges and opportunities
in the UNECE region. EU enlargement, with
10 new members, and in the near future three
others, will greatly change the framework
of economic cooperation and integration
in the region. This enlargement has brought
new neighbours to the European Union but
has also had impacts on more distanced countries
in South-East Europe and the CIS. This development
puts more emphasis on the need for an extended
“Wider Europe” policy. The Wider
Europe policy should be more inclusive and
should prevent new divides between EU-members
and non-EU members in different stages of
transition and different formats of cooperation
with the EU. This is the imminent objective
of UNECE. The challenge is to make the enlargement
a stepping-stone to a broader and deeper
economic integration process in a wider
Europe. To achieve this objective in a more
efficient way, building regional and sub-regional
cooperation, in which CEI and UNECE play
an important role, is indispensable. Bilateral
cooperation is not enough.
CEI is considered to be
a good forum where non-EU members with ambitions
to accede to the EU in the future could
benefit from the experience of “new”
EU Member States for which the perspective
of EU accession has been a strong engine
for reforms.
In this context I think
it is important to recall the broad priority
policy areas guiding development in the
European Union. In his mid–term review
of the Lisbon strategy for growth and development,
Mr. Wim Kok, former Prime Minister of the
Netherlands and the High-Level Group that
he has chaired re-confirms that in order
to improve its competitiveness EU has no
option but to; (1) radically improve its
knowledge economy; (2) complete the free
internal market; (3) establish a favourable
climate for business; (4) create an inclusive
labour market; and (5) develop an environmental
economic strategy. However, the policy recommendations
for EU members could be extended to all
CEI members. UNECE plays an important role
in all these areas. We are assisting governments
to formulate policies and set up institutions
including legal structure that create an
environment conducive to the development
of knowledge-based economy, to deepening
economic integration, and to socially and
environmentally friendly economic development.
In this context, I would like to remind
you of the main UN initiatives in 2005 linked
directly or indirectly to the CEI’s
objectives, such as, the 2005 Summit on
MDGs, Copenhagen +10 on Social Development,
the second part of the first round of the
WSSD Plan and the second part of the World
Summit on the Information Society.
Excellencies, I look forward
to continued cooperation between UNECE and
CEI in the areas of your interests including
transport, cross-border cooperation, energy
market development and other areas. Finally,
I would like to offer our cooperation to
the forthcoming presidency in 2005 in my
home country, Slovakia.
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