I would like to warmly greet you on behalf of Montenegro. I would like to thank my friend Minister Haxhinasto for the invitation and congratulate our Albanian hosts on the excellent organization of the meeting.

The timing for it is right, and the topic is very inspiring. The year in which all our countries made progress in the process of the European and Euro Atlantic integration is coming to an end. We are all in different phases, but the most important is that we are all on the same track, and that these two processes are complimentary. I would like to congratulate Croatia on the conclusion of the accession negotiations, as well as Serbia on the EC recommendation for the candidate status. Albania, alongside with Croatia, is a respected member of NATO and it is making efforts for progress in the European integration. We believe our friends from Skopje will find a formula for the solution of the known dispute, which will automatically open doors for their NATO membership and the EU negotiations. We also hope our friends in Sarajevo will overcome the internal situation and accelerate their progress. Kosovo is striving for the same goals. We believe that the continuation of dialogue with Belgrade will as a start result in opening of the process of the visa liberalization and inclusion of Pristina in regional initiatives.

Montenegro harbors a realistic hope that the European Council will take into consideration the EC recommendation and set the date for the opening of the accession negotiations. We have recently entered into the second annual MAP cycle. We are convinced that our commitment to reforms, the implementation of the European legislation, building of the society based on the rule of law and efficient institutions would lead Montenegro towards the NATO and the EU membership. This is why we are not bargaining with dates. The date of the launching of the accession talks is more important for us than the date we end it. We see this as a chance to implement reforms, as a kind of preliminary test before taking the European exam after hard and long preparations.

In the past several years we have often met, as today in Tirana, in all our countries and talked together with our European and US friends about our joint future. We know everything about the past. We have all paid too high a price for the mistakes we made to repeat them. Democratization of our societies is the foundation of our successes. I can claim this with certainty based on the experience of Montenegro. We have achieved measurable results in realization of the seven key priorities from the EC Opinion. We have managed to do this due to the internal dialogue of the Government and the opposition, all branches of power, with the inclusion in the process of the NGOs, media, social partners, civil society as a whole. We have provided the ownership of the process. Through a dialogue on the adoption of the Election Law we have risen above party, ethnic or national interests and showed that the European perspective is the guiding light for all parts of the Montenegrin society. We have been doing this in continuous two-way communication and with the assistance of the European Commission and Brussels administration. We have also had the help of our neighbors and the EU member states who have gone through the same road Montenegro is now taking.

We are a small multiethnic country who can serve as an example for others, and for the region as a whole. We are proud to have preserved peace and strengthened multiethnic harmony also in the time of the bloody Yugoslav drama. We are proud we are building a society of citizens along the lines of the European civilization, and that Montenegro is seen equally by the Montenegrins, Serbs, Albanians, Bosniacs, Muslims, Croats, everyone, as their own country.

This is our greatest capital and a guarantee of our better future. We have reflected this internal dialogue and mutual respect on building bilateral relations with our neighbors, and we have no open issues with them. Is there a better example of the progress of the whole region then the fact that a joint team of instructors of the Adriatic Charter countries was sent to the police school in Kabul, an effort also joined by Slovenia. Another example is a Ministerial Declaration on durable solutions for the problem of refugees signed a couple of days ago in Belgrade.

Montenegro is not a country without problems, of course. However, we can identify them and know how to solve them. We cannot fool ourselves that the Balkans is a region without problems, which our international partners always have to have in mind. A warning for all of us was the recent mindless attack on the US Embassy in Sarajevo, which we condemn strongly. The Balkans has practically until yesterday been the EU's ''Southern neighborhood'', using analogy on the processes in the Arab world. All of us in the region, some slower and some faster, are only in the process of adopting democratic practices. Human and minority rights, media and other freedoms, building of the rule of law, are all painstaking tasks for present and generations to come. The most important is, however, that we have taken this path and that we are united with shared European and Euro Atlantic goals, that we understand more and more that we are the closest to each other. Ethnic and confessional differences have often throughout history been irrational reasons for conflicts and wars.

Dialogue, peace, respect and promotion of diversity are today our advantage, and a recommendation for the faster track towards the EU and NATO. This is also a formula for the solution of the remaining open issues in the region, and for its permanent stability. This is going to be our best contribution to the European and global security.

Thank you.