"European affairs at the turn of the millennium have been characterised by many labels and slogans in an attempt to define the era our generation is living through. It appears that our continent is simultaneously experiencing post-communism and post-bipolarism in world politics, enlargement and restructuring of European institutions (...). For the countries of South East Europe, the process of transition from communism to democracy has reached the point at which they are embarking on a much longer journey - the transformation process. While the transition so far involved the dismantling of communist political structures (...), transformation is going to be much more complex. It involves state-building and good governance based on the rule of law, human rights and civil liberties, a free market economy, pluralist democracy and above all, socio-cultural changes (...)."