Declaration adopted at Ancona meeting

ANCONA -- The future of Southeastern Europe is in the EU, the Adriatic-Ionian Initiative Council concluded in a declaration adopted at its 12th meeting held in Italy. The document adopted on Wednesday stressed the need to speed up the process through concrete steps such as visa liberalization for Albanian and Bosnian citizens. One of the Initiative's main goals is creating political and institutional conditions for the successful realization of EU accession projects for countries which are already close to Europe, like Croatia, and those which still have a ways to go, like Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Serbia and Montenegro, it is said in the declaration. The Council meeting was presided by Italian Foreign Minister Franco Frattini and attended by Serbian Foreign Minister Vuk Jeremić and Albanian, Bosnian, Montenegrin, Greek, Croatian and Slovenian foreign ministers. The Adriatic-Ionian Initiative was founded in Ancona on May 20, 2000, and comprises the seven countries on the Adriatic and Ionian seas - Albania, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Montenegro, Greece, Croatia, Italy, Slovenia and, by succession, Serbia. The aim of the Initiative is to promote development, security and cooperation in the Adriatic-Ionian region and to support countries in transition in the process of EU integration.