The South-East Europe Cooperation Process (SEECP) is the leading political format for regional cooperation and European and Euro-Atlantic integration of the Western Balkan countries. The statement was made by the President of the National Assembly Tsetska Tsacheva and the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Igor Crnadak.

Mr. Igor Crnadak is on a two-day visit to Bulgaria to attend the second informal meeting of the foreign ministers of the SEECP member countries.

The National Assembly president noted that Bulgaria has taken over the chairmanship of SEECP for the third time in 2015 and proposed that the Process concentrates its efforts on three priority fields of cooperation namely: energy and transport connectivity, freedom of expression and media, migration and handling of the refugee influx. She added the Bulgarian chairmanship considers the SEECP to be the main engine towards the European perspective of the Western Balkan countries.  

“We count on Bosnia and Herzegovina to support the candidature of Sofia for the SEECP Parliamentary Assembly Permanent Secretariat’s headquarters”, stressed Tsetska Tsacheva. In her view the advantages of Bulgaria rest on its experience, accumulated at the time when the country was hosting the Regional Secretariat for parliamentary cooperation in SEE, on the EU membership of Bulgaria in view of the European orientation of the region towards the European Union and on its good contacts with the European Parliament. 

“For Bosnia and Herzegovina the SEECP is one of the most important initiatives for regional cooperation and the chairmanship of Bulgaria  is extremely successful”, said foreign minister Igor Crnadak. In his view under the chairmanship of Bulgaria, the SEECP has become the unanimous voice of the countries of the region.

“The membership of Bosnia and Herzegovina in the European Union is a strategic foreign policy goal|”, stressed Igor Crnadak. He expressed gratitude for the consistent support of Bulgaria for the European  perspective of his country.

The President of the National Assembly, Tsetska Tsacheva, said there were no open and unresolved questions between Bulgaria and Bosna and Herzegovina and the two countries maintain an active political dialogue on all levels, with the exception of the trade and economic relations, where there were still untapped potential and oportunities for development in the fields of tourism, culture and education.

“In bilateral plan we should focus our efforts on the development of the economic and trade relations”, the foreign minister of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Igor Crnadak, also said.