Brussels, 25/02/2000 (Agence Europe) - The European People's Party (EPP) and the Union of European Democrats (EDU) and the Conservative parties of the Balkans are taking part in a conference on democracy and the consolidation of peace and stability in South East Europe, to be held in Thessaloniki on Friday and Saturday. The Conference will be opened by the presidents of the EPP party, Wilfried Martens, the European Parliament's EPP/ED group, Hans-Gert Pöttering, of the EDU, Sauli Niinistö and of Nea Demokratia, Kostas Karamanlis. It will tackle above all the situation of democracy in the region (mainly with the deputy prime minister of FYROM, Vasil Tupurkovski), the creation of a regional cooperation forum (with former Croatian Prime Minister Mate Granic, and the president of the Alliance for Change in Serbia, Vladan Batic).