CEFTA and Common Regional Market

On the auspices of the Berlin Process Summit, WB agreed upon creating a Common Regional Market and tasked CEFTA Secretariat with leading the implementation efforts in trade-related issues.

Despite initial success, underlying issues of political mistrust persisted interfering with substantial change. This policy paper argues that:

• CEFTA Secretariat should be given executive powers with authority strictly limited to trade-related aspects of the Action Plan;
• An effective, rules-based, and reliable dispute settlement mechanism should be arranged;
• CEFTA should closely cooperate and coordinate its actions with regional organisations interested;
• CEFTA should closely collaborate with civil society organisations in every step of the way;
• Promotive and informative activities should be implemented.

This paper won the third place in the competition “CEFTA – regional trade area and beyond: Call for Innovative Policy Proposals” which was announced on the occasion of ten years of CEFTA