Dear Colleagues,
Distinguished Participants,
Ladies and Gentlemen,
I would like to cordially welcome at the 31st Meeting of the Council of the Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the BSEC Member States and to the beautiful city of Thessaloniki, a city which symbolizes, both within Greece and in the wider region, openness, diversity and creativity.
This region stands at a critical gateway uniting Europe and Asia, linking crucial avenues of trade and communication, a hub for energy and transport networks. In a period where our world is shaped by new global developments, our region faces important challenges, which we need to transform into shared opportunities, based on our common historical experiences and cultural values.
In this perspective, our priorities as BSEC [Bi-SEC] Chairmanship-in-Office were summarized under the motto “Building Support for Economic Cooperation”, sealed by the figure of an ancient Greek trireme, symbol of contacts, trade and cultural exchanges among the Black Sea peoples. We particularly accentuated the need of coherence and continuity in BSEC activities and I want to thank our Bulgarian Colleagues, who ensured the chairmanship of the Organization in the first semester of this year, for their insights and cooperation in the preparation of the Calendar of Events of our Chairmanship. We are now preparing to pass the torch to the Chairmanship of Moldova; it is appropriate to refer to the work done and define our future priorities.
The Hellenic BSEC Chairmanship put a special emphasis on the promotion of sectoral cooperation. In this framework, three sectoral Ministerial meetings were hosted in Greece:
The Meeting of the Ministers in charge of Healthcare was held in Athens, on 29 September 2014, the first such meeting in the history of BSEC.
This Meeting led to the establishment of a “Network for the Emergency Preparedness and Response in the field of Healthcare”, a highly appropriate initiative at a time when the Ebola outburst proved the urgency of developing regional responses to emerging global threats to public health.
The Meeting of the Ministers in charge of Tourism was also held in Athens, on 23 October 2014. The Declaration of the Meeting encouraged our relevant National Authorities to better coordinate, in order to promote the BSEC region worldwide as an attractive tourist destination, also developing special and innovative forms of tourism, like film-induced tourism, as well as religious, gastronomic, wine, cultural and sport tourism.
Finally, the Meeting of Ministers of Transport, hosted in Thessaloniki on 25 November 2014, which was convened with a special emphasis on the development of integrated multimodal transportation system in the region.
The Chairmanship put a special priority on transport issues, including a number of regional meetings and conferences in its Calendar of Events and, also, most crucially, scheduling meetings of both governing bodies of the relevant BSEC Memoranda, namely the Black Sea Ring Highway and the Motorways of the Se, with the view of accelerating the work of the Joint Permanent Technical Secretariat of the Black Sea Ring Highway, based in Thessaloniki and of the rotating Joint Technical Secretariat of the Motorways of the Sea.
I want to take this opportunity, to thank all Member States for their support in the success of the above-mentioned Meetings, which will provide fresh impetus and guidance to our cooperation in the coming years. I want to also thank, especially, the Republic of Azerbaijan for its initiative to host two additional sectoral high-level meetings, in Baku, the Meeting of Ministers in charge of Science and Technology and the Meeting of the Heads of Customs Administrations.
We welcomed the willingness and readiness of our Azerbaijani colleagues to host these meetings and we consider their initiative a potent symbol of excellent cooperation within the BSEC Organization.
Distinguished Colleagues,
The guiding principle of the Hellenic BSEC Chairmanship-in-Office was to promote BSEC’s role as an appropriate vehicle for developing concrete projects, putting into profit BSEC’s unique experience as the oldest, most representative and institutionally mature regional economic organization in the wider Black Sea area.
In this respect, I want to particularly highlight the adoption, this November, of the Resolution on BSEC-UN cooperation by the General Assembly of the United Nations. This document embraces all areas of BSEC’s activity and aims to further develop our multi-faceted interaction with the Specialized Agencies of the United Nations.
Greece also attaches particular importance to the development of BSEC-EU cooperation. We see this interaction as a flexible, pragmatic and project-oriented one, a cooperation which would put into profit BSEC’s unique experience as the oldest, most representative and institutionally mature regional economic organization in the wider Black Sea area. We think that BSEC-EU interaction can and should be a balanced and mutually advantageous one, built on a shared appreciation of the priority needs in the region and of the specificities of the input, which each stakeholder can bring into the process. What is certain is that our region is in urgent need of concrete joint initiatives and well-prepared, locally owned projects.
In this respect, I am very happy to announce that, in the cultural field, the Hellenic Chairmanship-in-Office encouraged and supported a new initiative by the “European Centre for Byzantine and Post-byzantine Monuments” in Thessaloniki, aiming at the establishment of a novel institution called “Cultural Port of the Black Sea”.
This initiative is promoted within the “Limen” project, funded by the EU Joint Operational Program “Black Sea 2007-2013”. As you know, BSEC is an Associate Partner in the “Limen” project, thus I am confident that, as more details of the “Cultural Port of the Black Sea” institution become available, BSEC and its Member States will embrace and support its establishment. This new initiative will help promote cultural tourism in our Region and contribute to the creation of networks between the city-ports of the Black Sea Basin.
We are also satisfied because during the term of the Hellenic Chair-in-Office we were able, with the constructive help of all Member States, but especially with that of the Troika and the Host Country, the Republic of Turkey, to successfully conclude the legal dimension of BSEC Headquarters’ relocation to its new premises. We are certainly sad having to leave the unique building that has so graciously hosted our Headquarters for so many years, yet we are confident that the new premises will offer all necessary amenities and facilities for continuing BSEC’s activity.
I wish to seize this opportunity and renew, on behalf of all Member States, the expression of our deep appreciation to the Republic of Turkey, for the sensitive and caring hospitality always bestowed upon BSEC.
Dear Colleagues,
Apart from the above, the Hellenic Chairmanship-in-Office also expressed its firm intention to initiate, during its term, a systematic approach to the long-standing, intermittent and inconclusive discussion on reforming the institutional framework and modalities of work of BSEC. The need to proceed in this direction is one shared by all of us; we have noted with appreciation the relevant interventions of Heads of Delegations in previous Meetings; perhaps we do not – yet – agree on all issues, but the realization of the need to reform BSEC and to act now is there.
In this respect the Chairmanship has prepared a “Statement on Reforming BSEC”, reflecting what we believe should be the general guidelines of this process. We believe that this discussion, organized within a given timetable, should not only have the objective of strengthening the BSEC Organization, but also deal with such issues as providing more resources to the Organization for the realization of concrete projects, simplifying the decision-taking mechanisms, introducing effective monitoring mechanisms for the activity of BSEC, rationalizing the work of BSEC subsidiary organs, enhancing the role of Country Coordinators and, perhaps most importantly, re-defining and re-focusing the activities of the Permanent International Secretariat of the Organization.
In this framework, we selected “Enhancing effectiveness and efficiency of BSEC”, as the main theme of the Informal Meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, held in New York, on 25 September 2014 and our Delegation at the Committee of Senior Officials already submitted an analytical “food-for-thought” paper, containing a list of proposals for a more efficient and project-oriented BSEC.
We are ready to provide our support to all subsequent BSEC Chairmanships-in-Office in this very important endeavor, to take stock and jointly elaborate on the proposals of other Member States. When this process is finalized, we are confident that our BSEC will be a more efficient, effective and result-oriented International Organization, a true reference in regional economic cooperation in the wider Black Sea area for its Member States and beyond.
Dear partners,
At this point, allow me to express my sincere appreciation for the tremendous work done by the Coordinator of the Hellenic BSEC Chairmanship-in-Office, Ambassador Christides and his team, for preparing this package of reforms, which we are ready to bequeath as an important legacy to the next BSEC Chairmanship-in-Office, that of the friendly Republic of Moldova.
It would be an omission not to cordially thank the Secretary General, Ambassador Tvircun, as well as the BSEC PERMIS staff for their support and valuable assistance throughout our Chairmanship. I wish to encourage them to multiply their efforts on the same path and in support of the next BSEC Chairmanship-in-Office, that of the Republic of Moldova.
I am looking forward to seeing you again in Chisinau in order to follow up on our fruitful dialogue.
Thank you very much for your attention.
December 12, 2014