Brussels, 20/06/2003 (Agence Europe) - The countries of the western Balkans (Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, FYROM, Serbia and Montenegro) are to ratify the European Charter of Small Enterprises this Saturday at the EU/Western Balkans summit in Thessaloniki. Following recommendations by the European Commission in its second annual report on the stabilisation and association process for south-east Europe and its recent communication on the western Balkans and European integration, the countries of the region will thus officially commit themselves to respecting the ten principles of the Charter, which outlines measures for national governments and the Commission to take to improve the environment for small businesses. By making this step, they will be joining twenty-nine other European countries, the Member States of the EU, the thirteen candidate countries and Norway, which are already working together closely on implementing the principles of this Charter. This will bring the number of countries officially undertaking to respect the Charter to thirty-four. Thanks to the work of the United Nations Mission in Kosovo (UNMIK), Kosovo is also covered.
The Commission will examine the implementation of the Charter in the countries of the region during an initial series of bilateral meetings, which key players in enterprise policy will be invited to attend. The dates for these meetings are: Serbia and Montenegro, 9 and 10 July respectively; Croatia, 17 July; FYROM, 18 July; Albania, 9 September; Bosnia and Herzegovina, 24 September. A bilateral meeting will be held in Kosovo on 11 September, under the ageis of UNMIK.
The candidate countries, which ratified the Charter in April 2002, will be included in the Charter's reporting system this year. As for the western Balkan countries, the Commission will publish a separate report including objectives and points of reference for the short and medium terms.