EU parliament speakers call for integration of Southeast Europe

The six parliament speakers of the European Union (EU) countries called for the EU integration of Southeast European countries in a joint statement adopted on Saturday, said reports reaching Belgrade from Slovenia.

Those speakers of parliaments come from the regional partnership of Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, Poland, Slovakia and Slovenia, reported Slovene Press Agency.

Slovenian Parliament Speaker France Cukjati said in the statement that the French and Dutch rejection of the EU constitution treaty would not dampen the EU hopes of people in Southeast Europe.

The speakers, who concluded a two-day meeting in the Slovenian lake resort of Bled, discussed the 2007-2013 EU budget talks, the ratification of the EU constitutional treaty and the EU transport policy.

The regional partnership is an informal and a non-institutionalized form of cooperation among six Central European countries. They were joined for the first time this year by speakers from Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Macedonia and Serbia-Montenegro.

Cukjati said that those speakers from the Western Balkans countries wanted EU parliaments to help them with know-how and experience in transposing the EU's body of laws in their legislation.

The joint statement also urged the EU hopefuls to continue cooperating with the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia.

Source: Xinhua