Member of the European Commission, Responsible for Enlargement

SPEECH/06/807

Olli Rehn

Member of the European Commission, responsible for Enlargement

"Opening remarks of Commissioner Olli Rehn at the Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA) Summit"

Central European Free Trade Agreement Summit

Bucharest, Romania, 19 December 2006 Your Excellencies, Ladies and Gentlemen, I am glad to be here in Bucharest today. This is a great way of finalising our work for this year. The signing of the enlarged and modernised Central European Free Trade Agreement is an important milestone for the region. In last week's EU Summit, the EU leaders also warmly welcomed the new CEFTA. This is another recognition for your efforts. I remember the early April day when we launched the CEFTA negotiations. Then we set an ambitious aim to conclude this process by the end of year. And here we are. Well done. I would like to congratulate you all for this great achievement and your determination to successfully conclude these negotiations on time. My colleague Commissioner Peter Mandelson and Dr Erhard Busek, the Special Coordinator of the Stability Pact, have worked hard for this new agreement. I would like to extend my congratulations to them as well. Let me begin by briefly looking to the results of the last week's EU Summit in Brussels. We had headlines indicating that "EU leaders are closing doors to the East". This is misleading spinning. The correct headlines should have read "the EU keeps its doors open to the South Eastern Europe". This door is open to Turkey, Croatia and the other countries of the Western Balkans – today, tomorrow and in the coming years. We look forward to these countries to be ready to walk through that door, once they meet all the accession criteria. In other words, the EU Summit was not about closing the doors. Instead, EU leaders were building a renewed consensus on enlargement. We need to maintain the EU's soft power to encourage democratic and economic transformation whilst, at the same time, ensuring EU's capacity to gradually integrate new members. Both must go hand in hand. By concluding the CEFTA negotiations, another door is opened today. The new CEFTA will bring further openness to the region economically, and politically. I can reiterate what I said back in April: The CEFTA is an excellent example of regional cooperation becoming reality. All this will promote growth and jobs, supporting the challenging and at times difficult economic reforms. CEFTA-agreement will allow you to develop competitive advantages and strengthen your export potential. It will increase trade and facilitate business contacts within the region. This will make you all stronger. The economic development will promote growth and jobs, bring concrete benefits to your citizens and increase prosperity of the countries in the region. This will make you better prepared to meet the challenges of globalisation and combat unemployment. The conclusion of the visa facilitation agreements will further improve the trade and business contacts between the CEFTA countries and the European Union. The Energy Community is another step towards greater regional cooperation. This will improve energy security, create a regional energy market and encourage vital energy investments.

2 The CEFTA agreement complements the EU's Stabilisation and Association Agreements with the countries of the Western Balkans. For the candidate and potential candidate countries CEFTA is a stepping stone towards the closer economic cooperation that is an inevitable part of membership of the European Union. In April we set the target for an ambitious, modern and inclusive agreement. This you have achieved. You have replaced the complex network of 32 bilateral agreements – quite a patchwork for a foreign investor or a regional entrepreneur – into one single regional agreement. This is already a great improvement. But you did not stop there. Instead you modernised the current agreements to include harmonisation of rules, services and intellectual property rights. This sends a strong signal to potential investors in the EU that the region is building an attractive, stable and predictable environment for foreign investments. The new CEFTA will boost trade and investment in the region. Globally, all of you are either the WTO members or negotiating accession. The WTO provides for the international trade rules and lays down basis for further, even more ambitious openness to trade. After the signing of the agreement today, I encourage you to take regional trade cooperation forward by implementing and using the possibilities offered by this new deal. You are in the driving seat. At the same time the European Commission remains your partner. We continue to help you to create the basic foundations for economic development and for a stable business environment: efficient and accountable institutions, education and research, and the rule of law. Ladies and Gentlemen, At a time of major challenges for the countries of South Eastern Europe, it is important that you work together and agree on a way forward to advance political stability and economic development of the whole region. The enlarged and modernised CEFTA agreement will contribute in achieving these common goals. I would like to thank the Delegates of the participating countries, the Stability Pact, together with other members of the international community for their hard work to successfully conclude the negotiations on time. Finally, I would also like to pay a special tribute to Romania, our host here today. Both Bulgaria's and Romania's commitment to constructively steer the whole negotiating process demonstrates once more their readiness to join the European Union in a few days time.