Xenophon Paper 2 pdf - ICBSS

Nevertheless, its members shared the common vision of regional cooperation as ‘a part
of the integration process in Europe, based on human rights and fundamental freedoms,
prosperity through economic liberty, social justice, and equal security and stability,
which is open for interaction with other countries, regional initiatives and international
organisations and financial institutions’. 3 As broad as that common vision might seem,
its power to inspire should not be underestimated. For almost half of the participating
states (i.e. for the Newly Independent States and for the, until then, self-isolated Albania)
it was above all a historic first in their appearance on the international scene. For all
newly emerged states in the eastern part of Europe - and their neighbours alike -
application of the CSCE principles and norms in their interstate affairs and adherence
to economic and political liberty was a priority. Regional cooperation might have served
partly declaratory purposes especially in the 1990s but it soon came to address real needs
related to opening links of interaction and solving problems of economic development
and transition.
The BSEC is officially defined as a ‘regional economic organisation’ placing trade and
economy – related activities as the priority issues on its agenda hence, its Working
Groups have focused on fields like trade, finance, SMEs, agriculture, transport, etc.
However, the BSEC has not developed into a trade bloc, or a Free Trade Agreement
(despite initial efforts) nor have its members taken trade related commitments. The
BSEC agreement does not provide for any trade related preference for countries within
the Group. Despite the rhetoric on the economic character of regionalism – which might
be partly attributed to the early influence of Ozal’s ideas on liberal foreign policy – the
BSEC developed primarily as a foreign policy tool to serve the strategic priority of the
political elites in the newly independent states; their ‘return to Europe’.
A powerful force driving regionalism in all parts of Europe has been the European Union.
EU integration acted as a powerful force, a dominant model in intraregional affairs. The
BSEC represented an effort to transplant the functional approach of building political
stability through economic cooperation. This is reflected not only in the nature of the
main working groups of the organisation but even more in its official documents. The
founding members stressed thus in the preamble of the Charter ‘…the desire of their
countries and peoples for constructive and fruitful collaboration in wide ranging fields
of economic activity with the aim of turning the BSEC Region into one of peace, stability
and prosperity’ (para. 11).
After the first formative years of the BSEC there was a strong request by the participating
states that the agenda of the organisation moved beyond the level of ‘discussion’ and
3 BSEC (1998), Charter of the Organisation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation, preamble para. 9, Yalta, 5
June. Text available on http://www.bsec-organization.org.
8 UNFOLDING THE BLACK SEA ECONOMIC COOPERATION VIEWS FROM THE REGION