Creating the New Europe: The Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe in the Context of Eu-See Relations
“The European Union continues to be strongly committed to the stabilisation and development of South-Eastern Europe. The Union’s strategy is to draw the countries of the region closer to the prospect of European integration.” This confident statement opens the joint Report on EU action in support of the Stability Pact and South-Eastern Europe (SEE) presented by the Finnish Presidency and the European Commission to the European Council at Helsinki in December 1999. It contains three ideas which are key to the EU’s policy towards the region: stabilisation, development and integration. The Stability Pact seeks to provide a framework for the coordination of effort towards these objectives: greater political stability, security and democratisation; economic reconstruction and development; political, economic and legal integration both within the region and between the countries of SEE and the EU.