Statement by H.E. Mr. Ivica Dacic, First Deputy Prime Minister and Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Serbia, at the 30th Meeting of the Foreign Ministers Council of BSEC Countries 19 June 2014, Varna (Bulgaria)

Mr. Chairman,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

At the outset, I would like to thank our hosts for an excellent organization of the Chairmanship and the hospitality extended to us.

Regional cooperation is one of the top foreign policy priorities of the Republic of Serbia. In this context, Serbia is endeavouring to support every initiative aimed at promoting dialogue, multilateral economic cooperation and the strengthening of regional good-neighbourly relations. The Black Sea region, which includes countries on two continents and which differ according to many statistical, political and social parameters, but which are united by their shared desire to make progress in all segments. This resulted in vast possibilities for the development of a functioning regional cooperation in areas, such as not only the economy, transport and energy, but culture and education as well.

Although being the youngest Member State, the Republic of Serbia is fully committed to translating into reality the vision, principles and objectives of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. In order to implement the planned activities, it is necessary to encourage the Organization's project-oriented action in accordance with its strategic documents, primarily the Economic Agenda towards an Enhanced BSEC Partnership, adopted in Belgrade in June 2012.

In fulfilling the set project tasks, an important role will also be assigned to our cooperation with the other international organizations. In this respect, I would like to refer, first and foremost, to the European Union, which actively participates as an observer in the work of the Organization. As a country in the process of accession to the EU, Serbia strongly supports the enhancement of BSEC-EU cooperation, in order to achieve concrete results and goals of mutual cooperation. This cooperation should not remain only confined to the signed memoranda and agreement but should also be brought up to date through specific joint projects.

At all Foreign Ministers' Meetings of BSEC Countries held so far, almost all delegations, including the delegation of Serbia underscored not only the importance but also the sensitivity of the Black Sea region and called for the improvement of cooperation.

Today, perhaps more than ever before, BSEC has both an opportunity and the responsibility to give an example of involvement that can make an impact upon the situation in the Black Sea region which is increasingly gaining in political and economic importance. Therefore, we continue to maintain, as in the past, that cooperation within BSEC should focus on areas of common interest, like the environment, trade, health, agriculture and energy, or areas where there is consensus among all countries and which could serve as incentives for finding solutions also in areas where there is no consensus.

Accordingly, Serbia supports encouragement of closer cooperation between private and public sectors in the execution of specific projects, as promoted under the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office. Furthermore, we consider very useful the idea of including issues related to youth and sport in the BSEC Agenda, which is another important result of the Bulgarian Chairmanship. Moreover, I would like to underline the importance of the Joint Declaration "Through enhanced BSEC regional cooperation towards a safe and sustainable transport", which was adopted by Transport Ministers in Sofia.

In order to be able to respond to emerging challenges, the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation should not only be active and engaged in all these areas but should also be functional and economical to allow the member States, in the present difficult socio-economic circumstances in the world, to keep up with the Organization in a most appropriate way and make their full contribution to the work of BSEC. Against this background, we favour the optimization of its work, with focus on concrete projects and solutions that can easily and quickly be implemented in the field and that can bring about specific results in due time, rather than on the number of meetings held and documents published.

We are confident that BSEC countries can jointly take advantage of the full potential of the Black Sea region to improve the living standards and overall prosperity not only for their own citizens but also beyond the region, through close cooperation, involvement and understanding. I would like to draw attention to another important area, namely environmental protection and environmental safety of the region, as well as the related cooperation in emergencies caused by unforeseen acts of nature beyond control. Natural disasters and climate change do not recognize borders, as evidenced in recent events that affected Serbia, Bosnia-Herzegovina and Croatia. In the context of devastating floods inflicting great many human losses and damage to property, solidarity and cooperation have been demonstrated both by our next-door neighbourhood and the wider region. A huge job of disaster rehabilitation and recovery lies ahead of Serbia, a job that will require valuable assistance from our friends and partners.

Let me extend once again our gratitude to Bulgaria for their efforts and congratulate them on the successful Chairmanship of the Organization.

Finally, I wish the incoming Greek Chair success in meeting the forthcoming tasks and in addressing the challenges posed before it.

Thank you for your attention.