Madrid, Spain 4 June 2003

Remarks by Dr Dimitrij Rupel, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Slovenia at the EAPC Meeting Panel II: Democratic Transformation and Its Contribution to Stability in the Euro-Atlantic Area Summary The partnership has helped and stimulated the democratic transformation in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe. It has also created a secure environment for their development, which enabled these countries to accomplish the reforms in the absence of any serious security burden. The defence system reform can be successful only when a democratic transformation as a whole is successfully concluded. The countries that have not yet concluded the process of democratic transformation should be assisted in this process. Slovenia is willing to intensify its assistance to the Western Balkans countries in their endeavours to establish partnership cooperation or to join the Alliance. Slovenia can offer the experience of its democratic transformation including its defence system and due to the knowledge of the region it can apply it in a most productive way. NATO enlargement proves that the democratic reforms carried out in the invited countries during their participation in the Partnership for Peace and the Membership Action Plan have been successful and that these countries have managed to transform their societies into stable and working democratic environments based on respect for human rights and a market economy. Democratic changes effected in the countries of Central and Eastern Europe have had both an internal and external dimension. The first relates to the genuine interest of the relevant political factors of individual countries in establishing permanent democratic structures, and the second is reflected in the interest of other democratic countries in promoting the rapid establishment of a functioning democratic system. The first dimension was more or less sufficient for the completion of democratic transformation in some countries, while incentives from the international environment were necessary in others. Important external impetus to such democratic transformation has also been provided by partnership cooperation established between NATO and non-members of the Alliance. This partnership has become an important factor in establishing security and stability in the Euro-Atlantic region. In this regard, we should also take into account the fact that all the countries in transition not only had to rapidly build up the structures of a democratic political system and market economy, but also had to alleviate the consequences of non-optimal resource management in the past. Such reform measures are an integrated whole that cannot produce their optimal effect if they are carried out separately or if priority is given to some of them. The reforms of defence and security structures should also be understood in this way; these reforms are unlikely to achieve the expected results unless reforms in the wider social environment are carried out concurrently. Conditions have thus been created that prevented the watering down of endeavours in the field of defence. It is difficult to establish a defence structure operating best in a democratic environment unless this environment has fully come to life. Slovenia has established a functioning system of political democracy that reaches beyond the structures of formal functioning. The media and civil society movements, which often maintain a critical distance from the decisions of the democratically elected government, constitute special categories of influential factors in the decision-making processes. Defence policy, too, can be the subject of lively public debate, as was confirmed by the high expectations of the Slovenian public with regard to the NATO referendum. At the referendum Slovenian citizens convincingly confirmed (66 percent in favour) Slovenia's proposed defence orientation. The Slovenian government has long been aware that open debate supported by argument is crucial, and this vitally contributed to the outcome of the referendum. Partnership cooperation and NATO enlargement have created a security environment which no longer poses a threat to democratic countries, and prevents the restoration of conditions that while differing from those experienced during the Cold War would nevertheless constitute a security challenge. The countries carrying out the process of democratic transformation were not hindered in the implementation of their reforms by security burdens because they are situated in an unproblematic security environment. On the other hand, the establishment of stable democracies has also further consolidated the existing security environment. The successful establishment of democracy constitutes an important element of stability and security since it provides an open area for the exchange of views and for competitiveness between the elites who are responsible to the domestic public and at the same time aware of the interconnection with the international community. To a large degree, such a structure of political life does not allow the transfer of conflicts from the national to the international arena. The absence or weakness of a democratic system frequently transfers social and political tensions and low intensity conflict to structures operating outside of the system and possibly against it. This creates almost optimum conditions for the occurrence of instability and consequently, sometimes, terrorism. The countries that have not as yet achieved sufficient critical mass to ensure their own stability through their functioning democratic system should be assisted in this respect as much as possible. This will enable them to join European integration processes and to contribute to common endeavours to efficiently confront contemporary security challenges. A functioning democratic state can undoubtedly confront international security threats more efficiently than a country incapable of ensuring its own democratic stability. There are countries in the Euro-Atlantic region that have not yet completed their democratic transformation despite making significant progress in recent years. The role of countries with an efficiently functioning system of political democracy should be instrumental in successfully accomplishing the processes of democratic transformation. It was only after the NATO intervention that the countries of Western Balkans were able to create the basic conditions necessary to begin the comprehensive democratic transformation that will provide lasting stability and security in this part of Europe. Despite the progress made since the first NATO intervention in 1995, these countries are still unable to completely ensure lasting democratic stability by themselves. NATO engagement in the Western Balkans must go beyond its military presence. NATO must become involved in an intensive partnership cooperation that will contribute to a faster and more efficient democratic transformation process. The main purpose of this cooperation is to set up such defence and security structures as will not contribute to existing tensions and latent conflicts being transformed into an open conflict that would endanger the security and stability of the entire region. Of particular importance in this regard is the establishment of partnership cooperation with Serbia and Montenegro and Bosnia and Herzegovina. Another important factor in achieving lasting stability in the region is the integration of the three current aspiring countries into the Alliance. Slovenia grants these three aspiring countries, signatories to the Adriatic Charter, its full assistance in their efforts to fulfil the requirements for being invited to join the Alliance. Slovenia has successfully concluded the process of democratic transformation, as is evident from its political stability and economic prosperity, and from the establishment of efficient civil democratic control of its defence structures. Slovenia had commenced to establish such control over its armed forces even before it joined the partnership. The reason for this was the negative experiences Slovenia had had concerning the interference of the former communist Yugoslav army in the civil sphere. Slovenia's successful transformation, as well as its high level of knowledge of the countries of the Western Balkans for historical and geographic reasons, and its forthcoming membership of NATO enable it to be constructively engaged in partnership cooperation with these countries and to accelerate the process of their democratic transformation.