Atlantic Council: The 3 Seas Initiative and the Balkans

5 February 2020

Fatmir Mediu Co-Organizer with General Jim Jones Chairman Emeritus of Atlantic Council

Participants

1-Ilir Meta President of Albania

2-Fatmir Mediu Former Defense Minister ALBANIA

3—Halim KOSOVA Former Minister Health Albania

4--Bujar Leskaj Head of High State Audit

5--Minister of Defense Minister of Montenegro

6- Ivan Brajovic Speaker of Montengro Parliament TC.

7-ANTONIO Miloshoski Chairman of FA committe in parliament of N Macedonia

8-Artan Grubi Chairman of EU Committe parliament of N Macedonia

9- Aleksandar Nikolovski Deputy leader of Macedonian Opposition

10-Zoran Jolevski Former Defense Minister

11- Ramush Haradinaj PM of Kosovo

12- Enver Hoxha Deputy PM of Kosovo

13- Armend Zemaj MP LDK

14- Ante Kotromanovic Former Defense Minister of Croatia

15- Aloiz PETERLE Former PM of Slovenia

16- Albert Weiler Member of German Bundestag

17- Frank Heinrich Member of German Bundestag

18- Cristian Tehres MP EU parliament Rumania

19- Bisera Turkovic Mijister of FA Bosnia&Herzegovina

20- Dalibor Milos Bosnia& Herzegovina

21- Vladimir Marinkovic Deputy Speaker of Serbian Parliament

22- Zoran Lazarov Asistant of Interior Minister Serbia

23- Tsvetan Tsvetanov Former Minister of Interior Bulgaria

24- Ivan Anchev, Consul General of the Republic of Bulgaria

25- Dr. Áron GIRÓ-SZÁSZ, Prime Ministerial Commissioner (State Secretary in the Prime Ministry)

26- Paul Sausman EU Commission

Atlantic Council

General James Jones Chairman Emeritus

Damon WiLSON Vice President of Atlantic Council

Ian Berzinski Senior Fellow Atlantic Council

Amb Robert Gilbard Senior Fellow Atlantic Council

General Jim Jones speech

5 February 2020 – The Atlantic Council

Good morning and welcome to the Atlantic Council. My name is Jim Jones, and I have the distinction of serving as Executive Chairman Emeritus of the Council.

It my pleasure to host this discussion on the Three Seas Initiative and its implications for the Balkans with such a distinguished gathering of the region’s political and governmental leadership.

While all of you deserve a special welcome, allow me to note the presence of

President of Albania H.E. Ilir Meta
President of Montenegrin Parliament H.E. Ivan Brajović
Serbia’s Deputy Speaker of Parliament Dr. Vladimir Marinković
Minister of Foreign Affairs of Bosnia and Herzegovina Bisera Turkovic.
We also have two former Prime Ministers with us today; Ramush Haradinaj who just stepped down earlier this week as Prime Minister of Kosovo; and we have former Prime Minister of Slovenia Alojz Peterle.

I had the pleasure of co-chairing the Atlantic Council effort that produced in 2014 a report titled: Completing Europe: From the North-South Corridor to an Energy, Transportation, and Telecommunications Union.

This contributed the intellectual and policy foundations of what emerged in 2016 as the Three Seas Initiative at the Dubrovnik Summit in Croatia.

This Initiative was launched and has been led by countries of Central Europe.

It is geo-economically and geopolitically ambitious.

Its objective is to accelerate the development of cross border energy, transport and digital infrastructure in the region between the Baltic, Black and Adriatic Seas – hence the name Three Seas.

Have no doubt: Success in this undertaking will have strategic ramifications:

It will sustain if not accelerate the region’s remarkable economic growth

It will reinforce the region’s and indeed Europe’s economic resilience – including its energy security by diversifying the sources of supply

It will contribute to completion of a Europe that is whole, undivided, free, prosperous and secure by deepening the economic integration of this region into a wider Europe.

The Three Seas Initiative is not only strategic, it is urgent – especially in the age of great power competition when Central and Eastern Europe faces challenges posed by malign Russian and Chinese economic influence.

As we will discuss, the initiative promises to have an impact on the countries represented at this table. The countries of the Balkans reside in the zone between the three seas, and today Slovenia, Croatia and Bulgaria are full members of the Three Seas Initiative. Croatia is a founding member given its leadership in hosting the first Three Seas summit in 2016. I should also say that I hope that Croatia will remain a leader in Three Seas as President Milanovic takes office and I am counting on my friend Ante to make sure it does!

I am eager to hear your impressions and reactions and aspirations regarding the Three Seas Initiative. How can the Three Seas Initiative complement the existing structure of the Berlin process and pave the way for the eventual Euro-Atlantic aspirations of the whole region?

Our agenda today is simple and straight forward.

I will first turn the floor over to Fatmir.

Then I will ask Ian Brzezinski, who is a Senior Fellow at the Council and who has worked with me on the Three Seas Initiative from the very beginning. He will provide a briefing on the rationale behind the initiative, its evolution, its key elements, and the issues before it as we approach the next Three Seas Summit and Business Forum that will be hosted by Tallinn on 15, 16 and 17 June.

That briefing will be followed by a discussion around this table that I will moderate.

Fatmir, let me thank you for convening this delegation and bringing them to the Atlantic Council.

Your initiative is very timely. After five years of Three Seas Summits, this initiative is on the cusp of transition from rhetoric to real action. This is a decisive year for the initiative and we will discuss that.

Fatmir, the floor is yours.