Mr. Chairman,
Excellencies,
Ladies and Gentlemen,

I would like to greet you on behalf of Montenegro. I would like to thank Bosnia and Herzegovina for the excellent organization of the Conference. I would particularly like to thank partner countries and the international organizations for the extraordinary cooperation in this regional process.

It is a great pleasure that the highest officials of the UNHCR, the European Commission and the OSCE – High Commissioner Guterres, the European Commissioner Fule and Secretary General Zanier, as well as the US State Department delegation headed by Mr Robinson are with us today. We also welcome the Governor of the Council of Europe Development Bank Mr Wenzel. I would particularly like to greet Ms Sadako Ogata, the former UN High Commissioner for Refugees. Her presence makes us happy, but it also reminds us.

Your participation at the Conference is an additional impetus for the governments of the region to find durable solutions for the refugee issue. Led by this, the governments of the four countries, with the support of the UNHCR, have launched regional initiative which, among other things, resulted in the Regional Housing Program. Its implementation will enable the resolution of this long-standing and above all humanitarian problem. This initiative is also much more than this. It is a matter of our past, an integral part of the reconciliation process, but also a matter for our future.

The regional process has a special meaning for Montenegro. Thanks to our distinguished neighbours Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia and Croatia, and the UNCHR, this process encompasses all refugee population in our country - including the IDPs from Kosovo from 1999. The total value of the Regional Program is 584 million Euro. Out of this sum, 27 million is planned for the implementation of projects in Montenegro. Our contribution to this sum is 15 percent. This is an integral part of our national agenda for sustainable and final solutions for refugees and IDPs.

The Government has intensified its activities on the improvement of the access to rights, but also on bettering life conditions of IDPs in the Konik camp. Our progress has been recognized by the European Commission in its recommendation to open the accession negotiations with Montenegro.

Today’s Conference is a challenge and a chance for all of us. We have waited for it for over seven years – from Sarajevo to Belgrade Declaration. Durable and sustainable solution is possible only with your support. I am certain that the international donor community recognizes the importance of this project as well as the readiness of the region to resolve the issue of refugees. The support you give to the governments of the region is a support to your neighbours. It is, at the end, a support to Europe, to the EU we all strive for. The peace and stability of the Western Balkans is directly dependant on the resolution of this issue. Closing the refugee chapter is a stimulus for better good-neighborly relations, for democratization and social cohesion of our countries, the future EU members. The Program of the four countries and the mentioned international subjects is realistic and achievable. The support we expect is going to be our shared success. We will also share the responsibility for this support. We are bound to this by the principles of the 1951 International Refugee Convention as well.

The implementation of this project is a guarantee that the day when refugees will not be persons with no address in the Balkans is to come soon; that they and their descendants will have their home country and a dignified life of a human being.

Thank you.