Regional security strategy from the perspective of the civil society

Governments in the Region should promote a framework for environment and disaster response capacity. In this field the experience of BSEC, BLACKSEAFOR, SEDM (SEDRO initiative) and CPD can be used as guidance for further cooperation and avoidance of hazards in the region, such as oil tank wreckage, chemical waste and over-fishing. A Regional Center for Natural Hazards Early Warning and Rapid Reaction is a solution that is worthwhile in this context, too. There must also be sufficient capacities to cooperate, both bilaterally and multilaterally, in the case of natural disaster such as earthquakes, floods and forest fires, where the military structures can be employed with success, as some recent events show.

A substantial part of environmental protection is also the preservation of existing resources. I must be acknowledged that by consuming to an increased rate of the existing resources will leave the future generation without valuable sources of development. That is why there must be developed resources for new ways of efficiency as well as new kinds of energy a.o. The expertise of the AII (through its ADIAKOSM project) can prove a worthy starting point in this regard.

In order to become full members of NATO and the EU, the countries in the region must make some significant steps to come to terms with European and, more generally, with Western best practices and, at the same time, to offer a chance to their specific features to survive in a competitive global world.

The joint effort of the Atlantic Treaty Association and its partners from the South-Eastern Europe is an indispensable and necessary contribution in the quest of constructive solutions to common security problems. The participants to the project discovered that, like never before all are in one boat and this is why the quest for a new security paradigm and the subsequent operational models and decisions are a matter of collective effort.

It is high time to close the insecurity gap and to withdraw from the political dictionary the grief term balkanization. Only powerful democratic and economically successful societies in the Region can make Europe and the Trans-Atlantic community stronger.
With the exception of Bulgaria and Romania, who are already in NATO and from 1^st January 2007 will be members of the EU, the main strategic objectives for all the countries involved are accession to NATO and the EU. The first objective will guarantee the security of the Region for the coming years and will avoid spreading of tensions. The objective seems not impossible for the next 10 years as the Alliance is increasingly becoming an umbrella organization promoting among others Western democratic values, peace and security. The Partnership for Peace has acted and still acts as a transitory framework towards full NATO membership for some countries, such as those belonging to the Vilnius Group (Albania, Bulgaria, Croatia, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Macedonia, Romania, Slovakia and Slovenia).
The Regional Security Strategy aims also to foster a new partnership of the region with the international community as until now it was only a matter of individual partnership. As from the 1^st of January 2007 three of the EU members will be coming from this region. A new regional approach is necessary even if until now the EU is forced by the specific features of integration to approach each country individually. Such an approach will avoid the development of new fault lines and will signal the fact that the entire region will become one day a part of the EU. The debates concerning the future of the EU are regarded with a lot of concern as the Union is an important beacon for the regional reconstruction and any sign of delay in the integration process is a supplementary pressure over the Region. Even if in the West these tendencies are seen as a natural process of debate, the countries in SEE see them as a threat for their future development as the stakes are higher for them. It would be a major disappointment and a huge risk for Europe that the Region becomes filled with mistrust and to search for other alternatives considered to be more advantageous.
In the present context, when the EU enlargement process seems to have reached a critical point and European institutions find it difficult to function in the 27 member formula, there is still the danger that this Region could face some new challenges. Mainly, if the EU doors will be closed for a longer period of time and NATO will not come up with a strategy of enlargement to the Western Balkans, this Region could find itself isolated, a new European ghetto. It is obvious that no one will profit from this situation as there can be no real security on the continent if the Region is still not secured.
Some recommendations resulting from the common work of the participants in this project:

- National Security Strategies should avoid considering the neighboring countries as threats.

- The countries of the region should work towards further cross-cultural communication and an improvement of the co-operation among all the stakeholders; improving foreign/neighboring language learning is recommended to be a priority for authorities and civil society.

- Further reforms are necessary in order to reach the Copenhagen and other relevant international criteria on national level in the SEE countries.

- The Regional Center for Combating Transborder Organized Crime (SECI Center) has proved to be successful in the regional cooperation for fighting organized crime and terrorism and has to be further developed to fulfill its mission. In this respect anti-terrorist policy and legislation has to be improved in order to prevent the occurrence of such phenomena as the nexus of existing organized crime channels and new terrorism activities.

- Joint border surveillance systems, joint assessment systems, training centers, liaison officers that are already functioning in Romania and Bulgaria, should be put forward also in other countries of the region with a view to secure the Eastern Border of EU and NATO.

- It is essential to further promote anti-corruption legislation following the EU and international standards.

- Countries in the region have to pay more attention to law enforcement processes, according to European standards.

- Countries in the area must conclude free trade agreements among each other and proceed in forming a free trade area and to introduce anti-trust laws to avoid controversial foreign monopoly positions over their state’s economy.

- Critical infrastructure protection should be a guiding principle for the adoption of specific legislation in each country, in relation with energy security and not only.

- It is essential to set up regional transport and communication networks such as low-cost air connections among cities in the countries in the region a.o.

- As a regional and European problem, the situation of the Roma minority must be a topic of larger concern, based on new projects and new institutions, such as a Regional Roma Centre for the Balkans a.o.

- Ensuring the participation for minorities of South East Europe in various sectors of public life will prevent the alienation of significant segments of population from the mainstream citizens.

- The creation of a Regional Health Monitoring Agency could be useful for avoiding health security risks, like pandemic a.o.

- Development of ecological agriculture could contribute to the health of the population in the region and also can become a major asset for exports a.o.

- National governments from the region should pay more attention to environmental issues and cooperate more closely to tackle natural hazards, ecological disasters a.o. by setting up regional projects, like a Center for Early Warning and Rapid Reaction for Natural Hazards.

- To decrease youth emigration from countries of SEE it is important to improve the educational system in the region, including the IT technologies opportunities.

- Initiatives like Association of the Media in Southeast Europe a.o. must be promoted by national governments and international organizations and could deal with the promotion of programs for better understanding in the region as well to promote their success story of the countries in the region at international level.

- Interoperability should be related not only to NATO member states and military establishments. Interoperability is the basis for combined and joint operations of military and interior forces but also for all inter-agency — both national and international level — and have a very broad scale of action including knowledge of English language, changing mindsets, security culture a.o.

- In the same time any positive message from Riga NATO Summit, regarding a perspective for the Euro Atlantic integration of the countries of the Region will be welcomed.

- The participants to the drafting of the Regional Security Strategy expressed their hope that EU Commission will contribute to the improvement of the quality of the relations among the SEE countries and will consider to support the efforts of the civil society in the transformation and integration process of the Region.

The participants at this regional initiative are well aware that their effort in identifying the main issues that are affecting the Western Balkans stability and security and addressing them is just the first step in achieving a real regional cooperation. This is why the “Regional Security Strategy from the Perspective of the Civil Society” should be improved periodically, taking also in consideration the political, economical and social changes and further developments that will occur in the future. On this basis, in a time framework of two years the need for the drafting of a new Regional Security Strategy was highlighted by the participants to the project.