Balkan countries sign expanded free trade agreement

Balkan countries sign expanded free trade agreement
The Associated Press
Published: 2006-12-19 04:20:17

BUCHAREST, Romania: Balkan leaders signed an expanded free trade agreement Tuesday that aims to help nations hoping to join the European Union reform their economies.
The pact, which currently groups Romania, Bulgaria, Croatia and Macedonia and is known as the Central European Free Trade Agreement, or CEFTA, will be expanded to include Albania, Bosnia, Moldova, Serbia, Montenegro and Serbia's U.N. administered province of Kosovo.
The EU has urged southeast European countries to sign the deal as a way of boosting business, increasing exports and attracting foreign investment.
After signing the agreement at a meeting in Bucharest, EU Expansion Commissioner Ollie Rehn described the pact as a "very nice Christmas present" and said it demonstrated Balkan countries' cooperation with the EU.
Austria's foreign minister said the CEFTA expansion would "further economic development in the region but also to accession to Europe." She said the deal was an important step toward reunifying Europe by integrating the Balkans.

Serbian Prime Minister Vojislav Kostunica said the deal showed Serbia was a step closer to EU membership, adding that it would "help harmonize trade, make it more transparent."
Kostunica said he hoped the agreement would spur Serbia's economic growth, estimated at over six percent this year.
The U.N. administrator in Kosovo, Joachim Ruecker, and trade officials from the province also signed the pact.
Romania's Prime Minister Calin Popescu Tariceanu, whose country has proposed enlarging the pact, said CEFTA would help bring more foreign investment to the region, adding that Romania was interested in the improvement of energy transport.
CEFTA was set up in the early 1990s by Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, Slovakia and the Czech Republic as they prepared for EU membership, as a tool to liberalize trade and promote economic reform ahead of EU membership. The five left the pact in 2004 after they became EU members, and Romania and Bulgaria will also leave CEFTA when they join the EU in January.
The new agreement is expected to become effective by May 2007 after ratification by member states.