30 Years of SEECP: Charting Shared Regional Transformation

Thirty years after its historic birth in Sofia - a milestone we are honoured to celebrate once again under Sofia’s Chairmanship-in-Office - the South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP) stands as a profound testament to regional ownership, political responsibility and the shared will to shape our own future. Over the decades, it has grown into an all-inclusive family of 13 Participants, providing the region with a steady platform for open dialogue and genuine cooperation. With the test of time, the SEECP proved to be more than a forum, but rather a strong anchor of stability, good-neighbourly relations and trust exactly when we needed it the most.

This is a meaningful achievement, a three-decade journey in which the cooperation process in South East Europe has helped our region to move from fragmentation to cooperation, from instability to predictability, and from post crisis recovery to a shared and prosperous European future. The accession of several SEECP Participants to the European Union stands as a clear confirmation of this broader transformation, while the European perspective of the region remains a central strategic horizon and a powerful driver of reform, convergence and cooperation, underpinned by the stable and sustained peace and stability fostered by SEECP.

Perhaps the most important and rewarding institutional achievement of SEECP Participants is the establishment of a genuinely homegrown multilateral institution, the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), as the successor to the Stability Pact. Fashioned as the operational arm of SEECP’s political guidance, the RCC has given regional cooperation a visible and enduring form. Through its regionally inclusive approach, its convening power rooted in the statutory mandate granted by SEECP, its technical expertise and its operational capacity to implement regional strategies and multi annual programmes, the RCC translates SEECP’s political ideals into concrete regional reality.

The results are both visible and felt across our region. From the SEE2020 and SEE2030 Strategies to the Common Regional Market, the Green Agenda for the Western Balkans, Green Lanes, the Roam Like at Home success, mobility agreements, digital cooperation and wider connectivity efforts, RCC supported processes have touched the daily lives of our citizens, and offered tangible benefits that improve conditions in the region for citizens, businesses and institutions alike. In recent years, the Western Balkans, in particular, has been able to benefit from these platforms under the stable and inclusive political umbrella that SEECP has helped preserve.

The institutional bond between SEECP and the RCC is one of the region’s strongest assets. While SEECP provides the political vision, the RCC delivers the space, instruments and continuity needed to translate that guidance into tangible results.

This skillfully crafted architecture has proven that regional cooperation is not just a shared principle, but a living, breathing mechanism for building peace, stability and prosperity, and for advancing European integration.

As we mark thirty years of SEECP, we do so with pride, but not with complacency. Much has been achieved, yet the potential of SEECP remains even greater than what has already been delivered. The region now faces a more complex environment, shaped by geopolitical uncertainty, the consequences of the wars in Ukraine and the Middle East, hybrid threats, energy insecurity, economic volatility, increasing inflation, climate risks, natural disasters, and demographic pressure. These challenges require cooperation that is inclusive, but also more focused, more resilient, and more effective.

The next chapter of SEECP should therefore be fuelled by a clear ambition: to move past well established paths of diplomatic dialogue and step into an era of dedicated actions and tangible delivery. The region now needs the full potential of SEECP as a dynamic political platform capable of forging unified responses, strengthening regional resilience and advancing the European future of South East Europe through greater strategic coordination among its leaders. The region has outgrown the need for just a common voice; it now needs the capacity to act as one.

By deepening the institutional link between SEECP and the RCC, and by placing a smart, skilled, sustainable, and secure region at the heart of its strategic agenda, South East Europe can ensure that its collective efforts will become even more consequential for its people over the next 30 years of its existence.

The full publication, 30 Years of SEECP: Charting Shared Regional Transformation, is available for download HERE.