Schemes of regional co-operation in Southeast Europe

The prevailing notion is that without regional co-operation in Southeast Europe, neither political stabilization nor economic recovery of the whole region is imaginable. Individual Southeast European countries are members of different organizations, but those include Southeast Europe only as a part of their makeup. Most initiatives must be primarily seen as declarations of intent that in most cases always address the same areas of cooperation. Their realization & implementation, however, have so far encountered obvious obstacles. Impulses & concepts came in any case from outside of the region, as was the case with Italy for CEI, Turkey for BSEC, the European Union for CEFTA, & the US for SECI. As an answer to the latent instability & susceptibility to crisis of the region the international community has most recently started a set of initiatives with the objective of containing hostilities & supporting possible forms of cooperation in Southeast Europe, with the prime example of the Stability Pact for Southeast Europe. 3 Tables, 4 References. Adapted from the source document.