Ministers and High-level officials from 37 countries and 32 international organisations have just concluded two days of discussions at the Second Regional Conference for South East Europe, in Bucharest, expressing a renewed commitment to long term economic and social development of South East Europe.

The Conference, co-chaired by the European Commissioner for External Relations, Chris Patten and World Bank Vice-President for Europe and Central Asia, Johannes Linn, was organised in association with the Special Coordinator of the Stability Pact, Bodo Hombach, and hosted by the Romanian authorities. The fact that this Conference was held in Romania, one of the countries of the region, emphasises the increasing ownership of the process by the South East European countries themselves.

During the meeting, the Donor countries strongly reaffirmed their political and economic commitment to the region, in the aftermath of the events of September 11. They recognised the substantial progress made by the countries of South East Europe toward democratic and macroeconomic stabilisation and regional cooperation, particularly the Stability Pacts regional initiatives for trade liberalisation, refugee return and fighting organised crime and corruption. The countries of the region expressed their clear commitment to expand and consolidate regional cooperation, and fully implement on-going economic and institutional reforms. All participants were very encouraged by the significant shift from emergency and reconstruction to medium and long term sustainable development strategies.

This new focus on longer term development challenges was reflected in discussions on key infrastructure sectors - transport, air traffic, energy and water, and the new set of 27 infrastructure projects that secured donor financing of Euro 2.4 billion. In addition, the co-chairs announced that total donor funding for South East Europe (including both regional and national support) remains substantial at over Euro 6 billion per annum since 1999.

All participants stressed the importance of the private sector and the need to attract foreign investment. To that end, discussions focused on the fight against corruption and improving the private sector enabling environment across the region.

Donors also announced significant new funding for refugee matters amounting to Euro 500 million, in addition to contributions from the countries themselves. The countries of the region also agreed on a declaration to work together on the fight against terrorism.