DATE=7/10/2000
TYPE=CORRESPONDENT REPORT
TITLE=E-U / BALKANS (L-O)
NUMBER=2-264246
BYLINE=RON PEMSTEIN
DATELINE=BRUSSELS
CONTENT=
VOICED AT:
INTRO: France has proposed a summit meeting of E-U
countries and Balkan nations. Correspondent Ron
Pemstein in Brussels reports France made the proposal
as E-U foreign ministers met for the first time under
French leadership in the rotating E-U presidency.
TEXT: The summit meeting is expected to take place
during the last week of November in Croatia - either
in the capital, Zagreb, or in the coastal city of
Dubrovnik.
French Foreign Minister Hubert Vedrine explained the
proposal during a discussion of the E-U Balkan policy.
/// VEDRINE ACT - IN FRENCH - FADE UNDER ///
Mr. Vedrine says the meeting will raise the
possibility of E-U membership for Balkan countries,
will strengthen their contacts in politics and
finance, and will open a democratic door for
Yugoslavia.
The Yugoslav government of President Slobodan
Milosevic will not be invited to the November summit
meeting. Instead, leaders from Albania, Bosnia,
Croatia, Macedonia, and Slovenia will meet European
Union leaders - along with officials from the Serbian
opposition and from the smaller Yugoslav republic of
Montenegro.
Luxembourg's foreign minister, Lydie Polter - speaking
through an interpreter - told fellow E-U foreign
ministers the European Union must continue its effort
to help the democratic opposition in Serbia.
/// POLTER ACT W/ INTERPRETER ///
Serbia is basically a black hole in the middle
of the Balkans and it is undermining and
destroying the stabilization process, which we
are trying to achieve between the E-U and the
countries of the region.
/// END ACT ///
British Foreign Secretary Robin Cook suggested the
summit meeting should start a process between the
Balkan countries and the European Union.
/// COOK ACT ///
We warmly support the proposed summit on the
Western Balkans. I think if it is going to be
successful, though we have work hard between now
and then to make sure that we can offer a
specific product to the countries of the Western
Balkans who come. It must not just be a
ceremonial occasion. It must be one that gives
them something to take home to their countries
to demonstrate our serious intent, part of a
process, not a one-off episode.
/// END ACT ///
What the European Union has not figured out is how the
summit meeting next November, excluding Yugoslavia,
will produce the democratic changes in the Balkans
that the European Union desires. (SIGNED)
NEB/RDP/JWH/RAE
10-Jul-2000 08:00 AM EDT (10-Jul-2000 1200 UTC)
NNNN
Source: Voice of America
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