Today, this Thursday October 23, 2008 at 12:00am noon, took place at the Victoria Palace in Bucharest, headquarters of the Romanian Government, an official ceremony during which the Prime Minister of Montenegro, H.E. Mr. Milo Đukanović, signed the Charter on Good Neighbourly Relations, Stability, Security and Cooperation in South-Eastern Europe, the fundamental document of the South East European Cooperation Process (SEECP).
As a forum of political dialogue and consultations, the SEECP represents an important instrument for promoting the interest of the Participating States regarding the accession to European and Euro-Atlantic political and economic structures.

The ceremony was attended by H.E. Mr. Călin Popescu-Tăriceanu, Prime Minister of Romania, whose country is the depositary of the SEECP Charter, and H.E. Mrs. Zinaida Greceanîi, Prime Minister of Moldova, whose country is currently assuming the SEECP Chairmanship-in-Office.

Text of the SEECP Charter, February 12, 2000

In their respective addresses to Prime Minister Đukanović, after wishing success to Montenegro in its new capacity of partner in the South East European Cooperation Process, Prime Ministers Popescu-Tăriceanu and Greceanîi stressed they were very confident that the signing of the SEECP Charter will institutionalise and consolidate Montenegro’s position to materialise its European aspirations, and that the country, by becoming a full member of the SEECP, will undoubtedly bring significant contribution to the largest political forum of South-Eastern Europe, both regionally and internationally. The Moldovan Head of Government also added that today’s signature will open to Montenegro new prospects of durable development.

As for him, Prime Minister Đukanović stated that, by signing the Charter, Montenegro formally confirms its commitments, as responsible and credible partner, in its path towards European and Euro-Atlantic integration, both to contribute to regional processes and regional co-operation, and to strengthen and revitalise good mutual relations between countries in the South East Europe region.

The day before, on Wednesday October 22, 2008 at 04:45pm Eastern European Summer Time, Prime Minister Đukanović, accompanied by H.E. Mr. Milorad Ščepanovič, Ambassador and Assistant Foreign Minister of Montenegro, had a 30-minute meeting with his Romanian counterpart, H.E. Mr. Popescu-Tăriceanu.

At the joint press conference that followed the meeting, the Romanian Head of Government declared:

I have concluded a very useful and amiable meeting with my counterpart of Montenegro, Prime Minister Milo Đukanović. We have mainly discussed the bilateral agenda. This agenda has been analyzed from both European and Euro-Atlantic perspective.
I consider Montenegro as a stable country aspiring to approach the candidate status for the EU membership. It may play a very important regional role. Therefore, I hail the involvement of Montenegro in the associations of regional cooperation. I hail the involvement of Montenegro in regional cooperation formats, especially acceding to the SECI cooperation, to CEFTA and the cooperation process in the South-East Europe.
With respect to the bilateral relation, I have showed that we need to make an inventory of the legal and judicial framework with a view to its bringing up-to-date, taking into account that at present, the judicial framework is based on the agreements signed between Romania and the former Republic of Yugoslavia. Among the agreements which we want to sign are the co-operation protocol between the Ministries of Justice and Interior, because the justice and home affairs is one of the key fields in the EU attention, EU member states with respect to the cooperation with the other states.
We agreed on the continuation of our discussions during the dinner I will offer to Prime Minister and we will try to see what we can do with respect to economic relations. Therefore, the President of the Romania’s Chamber of Commerce and Industry and the President of the Association of Businesspeople from Romania have been invited to attend this dinner.
We have discussed about the possibility to cooperate in the energy field. We want to establish an energy stock exchange in Bucharest and we invite all the neighboring countries to participate in ensuring the energy security, in view to its poised supply and to benefit from the economic advantages brought by such structure.
With respect to the support Romania extends to Montenegro’s European aspirations, we have taken an important step. Romania is the tenth country that ratified the Stabilization and Association Agreement between Montenegro and the European Union, proving in this way Romania’s opening pertaining to the European outlook of Montenegro. This agreement was ratified by the Chamber of Deputies and also by the Senate two days ago.
With respect to the Euro-Atlantic aspirations, I have reminded to Prime Minister of Montenegro that on the occasion of the NATO summit in Bucharest, the intensified dialogue with Montenegro was launched and we voiced our wish for helping the Montenegrin authorities as regards the cooperation with the North-Atlantic organization.
We have also approached other topics as well, the Kosovo file included. Romania did not recognize Kosovo’s unilaterally declared independence. Montenegro decided to recognize it. We mutually respect our stances.
It rests with us to make our contribution to turn the Balkans’ area into an area of stability and prosperity. It would serve our joint interest, the EU and our countries’ interest as well.
I would like to invite you tomorrow to the signing ceremony of the South-East Europe’s Cooperation Chart about to take place with the participation of the current presidency held by the Republic of Moldova, its Prime Minister. The signing ceremony by Montenegro will be a novelty, a further step towards integration into the regional cooperation strauctures.