Goran Svilanovi?: EU Accession Countries Should First Join Energy Union

"We know we have problems, and we are not going to make a list of problems, because then people, politicians may be stimulated to add to the list, rather than ticking off and agreeing on what we have resolved." 

This is what Serbian diplomat and politician Goran Svilanovi?, Secretary General of the Regional Cooperation Council (RCC), told Novinite in an interview he gave hours before taking part in an energy conference in Bulgaria's capital Sofia on Tuesday.

Mr Svilanovi? on Monday was officially confirmed for a second term at the top of the RCC, a body widely described as "the operative arm" of the organization called South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP). The agreement on his reelection was signed by from Foreign Minister Daniel Mitov, who currently serves as SEECP Chairman-in-Office after Bulgaria took over the rotational presidency from Albania earlier this summer.

RCC is also the successor of the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe (SPSEE), an organization created by the West and Russia in the 1990s to incite political and economic recovery.

The Energy Security and Energy Infrastructure in South East Europe for its part is aimed at exploring solutions related to energy diversification and security of supplies as part of a broader strategy that, in Mr Svilanovi?'s words, could lead to the integration of non-EU Western Balkan countries into the Energy Union prior to their accession into the EU. 

Mr Svilanovic, the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe (SPSEE) turned into a Regional Cooperation Council in 2008 to affirm Southeastern European states' will to take the initiative in their relations. To what extent...