Globalization and the Wider Black Sea Area: Interaction with the European Union, Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East

Abstract

This article deals with the relationship between globalization trends and the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) region. Its key argument is that BSEC role and dynamics with respect to globalization are strictly related to and largely dependent on the relationship between BSEC and the European Union (EU). The article assumes that BSEC performance in the framework of globalization is related to and mostly affected by its relations with the EU. These relations are about to be regulated by the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) recently adopted by the EU with a view to tackling the consequences of the 2004 Eastern and Southern enlargement. The ENP will affect the BSEC directly and indirectly— that is by means of EU policies towards BSEC itself as well as those towards BSEC neighbouring regions and countries. In particular, it will affect two regions that are very significant to the BSEC: the Eastern Mediterranean and the Middle East. The article comments on such indirect effects and concludes by recommending the establishment of contractual relations between the EU and the BSEC in a form similar to that of the Northern Dimension, so as to allow the BSEC to take due advantage from the ENP process.

Acknowledgements

This article is based on a paper presented at the conference on ‘The New European Architecture in the 21st Century. Promoting Regional Co‐operation in the Wider Black Sea Area: The BSEC Case’, organized by the International Centre for Black Sea Studies (ICBSS) and the Hellenic Parliament in Milos (Greece) on 3–7 September 2003.

Notes

[1] See Black Sea Economic Cooperation (Summit Declaration, and Bosphorus Statement). Information on the BSEC is provided on the organization’s website: http://www.bsec-organization.org. On the political and security aspects of the BSEC and the Black Sea cooperation, see Pavliuk (1999: 128–150) and Manoli (2003).

[2] See, most recently, Telò, and Guerrieri and Scharrer, with numerous references to current literature on the subject. On BSEC as a case of ‘new regionalism’, see Tsardanidis (2003).

[3] Emerson and Noutcheva (2004) used the concept of ‘gravitation’ drawn from the theory of trade.

[4] In fact, the Brussels meeting is positively mentioned in the Report of the Twelfth Meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the BSEC Member States, which took place in Komotini, Greece, on 23 April 2005.

[5] Two important EU documents on the ENP are the following: Commission of the European Communities (Wider Europe‐Neighbourhood, and European Neighbourhood Policy).