The Three Seas Initiative is sending clear signals we are moving in the right direction, and the important goal of reducing the differences between the old and the new Europe could be reached soon, Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarovic said in Bucharest on Monday.
“The Three Seas Initiative wishes to contribute to the economic development of central Europe in order to erase the differences between the so-called European east and west, between the so-called old and new Europe, which specifically means better living standards for our citizens,” Grabar-Kitarovic told reporters.
Grabar-Kitarovic first put forward the proposal about that informal political platform in 2015. The platform was soon joined by the president of Poland.
Twelve countries located between the Adriatic, Baltic, and the Black Seas – three Baltic countries (Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania), four members of the Visegrád Group (Hungary, Slovakia, the Czech Republic, and Poland), and Croatia, Slovenia, Bulgaria, Romania, and Austria – today comprise the informal platform for cooperation on projects with the aim of increasing national security levels, better transport and digital connectivity, market development, and social cohesion in general.
The platform was presented at a summit in Dubrovnik in 2016. The summit in Warsaw in 2017, attended by US President Trump, gave it the necessary political impetus.
Trump had also sent a message of support to this year’s host, Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, ahead of the summit, saying the initiative had great potential in the area of energy, infrastructure and business cooperation as well as in terms of removing trade barriers.
This year, members of the initiative aimed to get the support of the European Union and its other members, namely Germany, whose Foreign Minister Heiko Maas attended the forum on Monday.
President of the European Commission (EC) Jean-Claude Juncker attended the summit forum as well, saying the EC fully supported the Initiative and wanted to encourage the members to open new corridors, not only between north and south of Europe, but also the east and west.
“Your presence shows us that our goals were understood and that the enormous potential of this Initiative has been widely recognised,” Grabar-Kitarovic said, speaking to Juncker, Maas, and the US Secretary of Energy Rick Perry.
The key goal of the initiative is to transform central Europe into the backbone of European and Transatlantic stability, she said.
“We firmly believe that we need the EU and the United States to remain as connected as possible in areas of economy, politics, and security,” said Romanian President Klaus Iohannis, adding that “our shared interests are above our differences.”
“This, third, summit shows our resolve to create an economically united EU which would make it a stronger Transatlantic partner,” Grabar-Kitarovic said.
Iohannis called for the 40 priority projects to be adopted at the summit.
“I want us to support this list of projects in the areas of energy, traffic, and digitalisation,” Iohannis said.
Grabar-Kitarovic presented 11 Croatian projects in Bucharest, saying that three of them concern energy infrastructure, seven transport, and one concerns digitalisation.
“Projects such as an energy supply corridor, communication infrastructure, as well as modernisation of our economies through transport connections, will enable the full integration of central Europe with the rest of our continent,” she said.
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