Your Excellency Prime Minister Cvetkovic,
Distinguished Prime Ministers,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

It gives me a particular pleasure to take part in the CEI Summit, under the Serbian Chair-in-Office.I wish to start by recalling our meeting in 2009, during the Bucharest Anniversary Summit, which I had the honor to chair. Back then, we have joyfully outlined the best ways for shaping the CEI’s future as a regional initiative.
I am glad to see that our meeting today builds on what we have agreed two years ago, and in this context, I would like to congratulate the Serbian Presidency for choosing the economic crisis as the main topic for this meeting. It is indeed an issue which challenges our countries and our citizens.

Dear friends,
During these past two years, there were many political evolutions in our region. First and foremost, the global economic crisis affected directly most of our countries. We have noted that CEI area is not only more and more inter-connected, but also very dependent on economic and financial decisions concerning the EU, particularly the eurozone. The ongoing economic crisis has increased the infrastructure reforms inside our countries, as well as concerning the European and international economic governance.
Increased economic interdependence demands a more determined and coherent response at the political level. None of the threats presented by crisis can be prevented by means of national policies alone. Common efforts and coordinated response are essential for restoring the market confidence.
The intense debates inside the EU and, the fears expressed about euro and the euro area have created major difficulties for our Governments.
Despite its diverse composition, the Central and Southeastern European region has become more and more dependent on the economy of the eurozone. Therefore, the recent evolutions in the eurozone had a visible impact on the level of foreign investment flows and on the funding of the short term external debt in some of our countries.
The Euro Summit held in Brussels a week ago has delived a comprehensive response to the sovereign debt crisis and implicitly to these concerns in our region. The fact that the EU leaders have been able to put forward a solution for the Greek debt, is a sign of responsibility and of hope that things can enter into “a confidence zone”.
I hope also that Greek authorities’ decisions will follow up the same pattern, of course the decisions belong to Greek authorities but I just want to mention a personal point of view: I think politicians must assume responsibilities for their countries, because the politicians were at the origin when the policies in different countries raised the debts, and now, in the same time, the politicians must assume the same responsibilities in order to decline, to reduce the debt of their countries. But, as I mentioned it is a sovereign decision of each country.
An immediate concern for Romania is of course its exposure to trouble markets, situation that is shared by many other countries represented here. On the 26 of October, Romania advocated the proposal to avoid re-capitalizing European banks at the expense of reducing the banks exposure in the non -euro countries. We have seen our concern being addressed somewhat by the European Council in its declaration. What we need now is for the decision to be implemented.
Just one thing about Romania: in the past two years, we succeeded to get a macro-economic stability, and now, due to these measures, Romania is now with a public deficit at around 4. 4 and economic growth 1.5. If Romania had not taken the measures to restore the macro-economic stability, we would have had a public deficit around minus fourteen, but, we assumed responsibility and we took the measures in order to have macro-economic stability, and for the next year, we are going to have a proposal for the budget, with a deficit around two percent, around 1.9, and an economic growth around two percent and in this context, we hope to be sure that we protect and we are able to defend our macro-economic stability.

Dear colleagues,

Central European Initiative needs to streamline its activities and to exploit synergies with political and economic dynamics in Europe. I would like to emphasize one aspect here: the importance of the cooperation between CE Initiative and European Union. Such cooperation has a great potential, such cooperation should be based on the CEI’s capacity to add value to the current EU programs and instruments.
The region needs such a platform for generating economic projects, complementary to the well-know activities carried out by EU. I will give just one example in this context: the Strategy for the Danube Region could be such a good framework in order to complement these two extraordinary programmes: our Initiative and the European Union’s programs.
The Central European Initiative could use this instrument for developing additional projects in areas such as: education, training, culture, tourism, small and medium enterprises and competitiveness. The Adriatic –Ionic Initiative could be another useful framework and there are several others.
Last but not the least, I would emphasize that Central European Initiative could become the unique framework to encompass the three European seas - the Adriatic, the Black Sea and the Baltic Sea. It is not a question of geography; it is rather a question of better interconnection. These three seas might not have much in common with the central –European identity for the time being, but they could become three seas well- anchored in the Central European economy. These should become our vision for the Central European Initiative.
As conclusion, allow me to extend my appreciation for Prime Minister Cvetkovic and the Serbian Presidency for their hospitality and for the perfect organization of this event.
Last but not least, allow me to extend my appreciation for our Secretary General, Ambassador Pfanzelter and the CEI Secretariat who deserve our full appreciation for the efforts they have done for ensuring a summit of great quality today.
Thank you for your attention.