European union officials agreed measures yesterday which they hope will lead to long-term stability in the Balkans.
Senior officials meeting in Bonn agreed a draft 13-page document, which details how a stability pact might operate and which they hope will be ratified by EU states before the German presidency ends on June 30th. The German Foreign Minister, Mr Joschka Fischer, said: "We must do now for south-eastern Europe what was done for Europe after 1945 and for eastern Europe after 1989."
The pact would, if agreed, be signed by the 15 EU states plus nine countries in the region - Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Macedonia, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia and Turkey, as well as Russia, the US, States, Canada, Japan, the OSCE, the UN, NATO and international financial institutions.
It would aim to bring about "mature political processes based on free and fair elections"; "creating vibrant market economies"; "fostering economic co-operation in the region and between the region and the rest of Europe and the world"; "preventing forced population displacement caused by war, persecution and civil strife as well as migration generated by poverty"; and "creating the conditions [for countries in the region] for full integration into Euro-Atlantic political economic and security structures of their choice".
Yugoslavia would be "welcome to participate as a full and equal participant . . . [if it] adopts a course which would allow it to be integrated into the international community".