REGIONAL COOPERATION AND ECONOMIC INTEGRATION

cannot be a reason to relax, given that the other members of CEFTA are also approaching
the EU and that brings further openness of their markets to stronger competition from the
Western Europe (Milovan, 2008).
CONCLUSION
Expanding CEFTA was a proposal floated by Croatia as an alternative to the EU’s original
idea of creating a so-called “Balkan Free Trade Zone”. Brussels’ plan came under fierce
criticism in Croatia, with many complaining that it would slow Croatia’s road to EU accession
by lumping it together with other states that are not as far along in the process (Cuk, 2006).
But even at the end of 2007, after the new CEFTA 2006 Agreement has entered into force
and included new members of South East Europe, plus Moldova, the topics associated
with CEFTA had mostly political connotation in Croatia. In the meantime, the integration
stopped being taboo and its existence is noticeable not only in the statistical evidence on
foreign trade. This is mostly associated with the fact that the CEFTA fulfilled expected
goal and increased the volume of trade which was stimulated by the regime of free trade
(Brnić, 2008). According to Dr. Erhard Busek, Special Coordinator of the Stability Pact
for South East Europe, CEFTA 2006 was one of the greatest achievements of the regional
co-operation in SEE promoted by Stability Pact and a long process took place before its
actual coming into force. Another challenge was to ensure that CEFTA 2006 would be a
modern agreement – one that would be able to adapt to the dynamic environment in SEE.
Lot of efforts were put in the adaption of the old CEFTA treaty to include issues such as
trade in services, government procurement, state aid and intellectual property rights. It is
believed that such a modern agreement would be an excellent tool in preparation for EU
membership. An increase in investment can also be expected, because a single market
plays a key role in attracting investment, thereby promoting economic growth, job creation
and in reducing unemployment. The expansion of CEFTA 2006 to include a range of newer
trade policy areas should add to the impact of the trade liberalization in goods and services
(Busek, 2008).
REFERENCES
Agency for Statistics of Bosnia and Herzegovina (www.bhas.ba), 28.05.2009
Annex 1 to the Agreement on Amendment of and Accession to the Central European Free
Trade Agreement, (www.cefta2006.com), 03.05.2009
Bank of Albania (www.bankofalbania.org), 13.05.2009
Brnić, M. (2008), Pozitivan trgovinski saldo Hrvatske s članicama Cefte, Poslovni
dnevnik (www.poslovni.hr), 03.06.2009
CEFTA 2006 (www.cefta2006.com), 02.05.2008
Central Bank of Bosnia and Herzegovina (www.cbbh.ba), 13.05.2009
Central Bank of Montenegro (www.cb-mn.org), 14.05.2009
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