Romania will take over from Bulgaria, starting on 1 July, the Chairmanship-in-Office of the South-East European Cooperation Process (SEECP), with the mandate running until 30 June 2027.

According to a Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) press release sent to AGERPRES on Thursday, Romania's mandate will last one year and will be officially assumed at the SEECP Summit in Sofia, scheduled for June 2026.

By taking on this responsibility, Romania reaffirms its commitment to regional cooperation, good neighbourly relations and support for the EU enlargement process.

Romania's mandate will focus on speeding up the European integration of partners involved in the process, boosting regional cooperation with an emphasis on energy, transport and digital connectivity, intensifying political and economic dialogue among participants and strengthening regional resilience in the face of current geopolitical challenges and hybrid attacks, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MAE) points out.

'Romania aims to be an active and constructive partner within the SEECP, promoting the stability, security and sustainable development of the region. We will continue to support the European and Euro-Atlantic perspective of the states of South-East Europe and to enhance the role of the SEECP as the authentic voice of the region, a voice that we intend to represent actively at EU level as well,' Foreign Affairs Minister Oana Toiu is quoted as saying in the press release.

Romania maintains close relations with the Republic of Moldova, partners in the Western Balkans and Turkey, partners engaged in the European integration process and SEECP participants. Romania country's active involvement in the SEECP reflects its constant commitment to strengthening regional stability and security, the quoted source shows.

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The SEECP is a non-institutional regional cooperation structure, a political forum managed exclusively by the participants from South-East Europe. It was established in 1996, when the foundations were laid for a new form of cooperation following the emergence of new states on the territory of the former Yugoslavia.

The participants in the SEECP are Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Croatia, Greece, Kosovo, North Macedonia, the Republic of Moldova, Montenegro, Romania, Serbia, Slovenia and Türkiye. The reference document for SEECP activity is the Charter on Good Neighbourly Relations, Stability, Security and Cooperation in South-East Europe, known as the Bucharest Charter, signed on 12 February 2000 in Bucharest.

The SEECP operates through annual summits at the level of heads of state, meetings of Ministers of Foreign Affairs, sectoral ministerial meetings in areas of common interest such as transport and the economy, meetings of experts, meetings of SEECP political directors and meetings of the SEECP Troika at director level representing the current, previous and incoming chairmanships.

Although non-institutional and without its own budget or funding programmes, the SEECP relies on the operational support of the Regional Cooperation Council, established on 27 February 2008 as the successor to the Stability Pact for South Eastern Europe, and functioning as a focal point for regional cooperation.

The Council is involved in coordinating programmes of regional relevance such as the South East Europe 2030 Strategy, whose main objective is the regional implementation of the UN Sustainable Development Goals, the Common Regional Market, an economic integration initiative for the Western Balkans aligned with EU rules, and the Green Corridors, trade facilitation mechanisms aimed at reducing waiting times at borders. It also carries out two relevant projects to test public opinion in the Western Balkans on security issues, SecuriMeter, and on the socio-economic situation and regional and European integration, the Balkan Barometer.

Romania has previously held three mandates at the helm of the SEECP, in 1999-2000, 2004-2005 and 2013-2014. AGERPRES (RO - writing by: Georgiana Tanasescu; EN - writing by: Adina Panaitescu)