JOINT INITIATIVES BY SLOVENIA AND GREECE

Ljubljana, 12 November 1999


The President of the Hellenic Republic, H.E. Constantinos Stephanopoulos, and the President of the Republic of Slovenia, Mr. Milan Kucan, assessed the continuous political dialogue between Greece and Slovenia as highly advantageous at todays final talks. As stable countries to the north and to the south of the Western Balkans, their joint initiatives put forward within the OSCE, the UN, as well as the EU can contribute significantly to the stabilisation of this part of Europe. Talks concerning the situation in SE Europe demonstrated a high degree of similarity and concordance of views regarding both the underlying causes for the situation and the possibilities for a gradual Europeanisation of this part of the Balkans. What is of critical importance in this is above all support to the democratic processes within the region and the introduction of European democratic values such as the protection of human rights, the principles of the Helsinki charter, including unalterable and open borders and the protection of ethnic minorities. Both presidents believe that processes based on these values will be able to significantly open the prospects for the Western Balkans to participate in European integration processes.

Upon conclusion of the first official visit of a Greek head of state to Slovenia, President Stephanopoulos and President Kucan also rated the bilateral relations between the two states and the prospects for their further development highly. This development is to gain further momentum with Sovenia's integration into Euro-Atlantic organisations, which President Stephanopoulos expressed his personal and his country's full support for.