In the presence of German Chancellor Angela Merkel, the President of the European Commission José Manuel Barroso and the President of the European Parliament Hans-Gert Poettering, a meeting of the heads of state and of government of the countries of South-East Europe was held in Zagreb on 11 May, on the occasion of the tenth summit of the South-Eastern Europe Cooperation Process (SEECP). The eleven participating countries (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Fyrom, Moldova, Romania, Montenegro, Serbia and Turkey) decided to beef up CEECP by equipping it with new structures of a regional and local character; this will entail the appointment of a secretary general and the creation of a Regional Cooperation Council, to whose running the European Commission has pledged to participate, also financially. Barroso emphasized that “the regional cooperation that is at the centre of EU policy for the Western Balkans is a factor of sustainable political stability, security and economic prosperity in an area whose future lies in the European Union”. Commenting on the conclusions of the summit, the Commissioner for Enlargement Olli Rehn said that “the reinforcement of the local factor in the framework of regional cooperation in South-East Europe reflects the maturity of a region that has relegated to the past the tragedies of the 1990s, that is increasing cooperation between its countries and that is following a European route”.
