The Stability Pact: Adapting to a Changing Environment in South Eastern Europe – Successes and Remaining Challenges
The Stability Pact: Adapting to a Changing Environment in South Eastern Europe – Successes and Remaining Challenges

Summary/Abstract: Five years after the Sarajevo Summit founding the Stability Pact in July 1999 the situation in South Eastern Europe has significantly improved. An outright military confrontation is inconceivable today; the democratization process is irreversible; and, while the economic situation is still of concern, important foundations for development have been laid. The region is well on track towards European integration. Enhanced regional cooperation, notably in the context of the Stability Pact, has been essential in bringing about these positive developments: Regional cooperation as an instrument of problem solving has made inroads in all countries; the concept of peer review and peer pressure has significantly advanced the reform process; match-making, bringing together donors, implementing agencies and recipient countries for joint priority setting has been very successful. Furthermore, the role of the Stability Pact as an honest broker and neutral forum has been important in bringing together institutions that do not usually work together. The Pact itself, conceived as a temporary instrument to achieve a specific objective, will become obsolete once this objective has been reached: stabilizing the region after the conflicts of the 1990s, enhancing regional cooperation and supporting ever closer integration into European and Euro-Atlantic structures. While significant progress has been made in the past five years, much remains to be done.

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