Xenophon Paper 2 pdf - ICBSS

Union, the OSCE, the UN Economic Commission for Europe, the Council of Europe, the
League of Arab States, the Economic Cooperation Organisation and other regional
initiatives such as the Council of the Baltic States, the Central European Initiative and the
Euro-Mediterranean Initiative”. The development since then of cooperation with these
and other international organisations and institutions, such as the WTO, the World Bank,
the Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development (OECD), the European Bank
for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD), the United Nations Environment Programme
(UNEP), United Nations Industrial Development Organisation (UNIDO) and MERCOSUR,
has made the BSEC a notable interlocutor in the efforts to foster economic progress and
enhance security and stability in the Black Sea region. The BSEC international image has
been further strengthened by receiving observer status with the UN General Assembly
as well as with the Stability Pact for South-Eastern Europe.
What future agenda for the BSEC?
The main directions of joint action towards increasing the effectiveness of the BSEC
and further developing multilateral cooperation in the Black Sea region are clearly defined
in the already mentioned BSEC Economic Agenda for the Future. In a more detailed
manner, the BSEC Ministerial Council decided, in its Bucharest Statement: Towards its
15-th Anniversary of 26 April 2006, to support the implementation of a series of steps
leading towards the achievement of these goals. Such steps would focus on ensuring
the implementation of resolutions, decisions and recommendations of the Ministerial
Council, strengthening the competences and on improving the functioning of various
BSEC bodies while increasing the contribution of the Observer States to BSEC activities.
In the Declaration on their meeting in Moscow on 1 November 2006, the Foreign Ministers
of the BSEC states expressed their conviction “that a solution of existing conflicts on
the basis of norms and principles of international law will ensure a proper environment
conducive to improvement of bilateral and multilateral economic relations in the region”. 6
This is an extremely important statement since it is directly linked to the ultimate aim of
the BSEC, as defined in the 1992 Istanbul Summit Declaration, that of turning the Black
Sea region into an area of peace, stability and prosperity and of friendly and goodneighbourly
relations among countries. Therefore, it would be in the highest interest of
all nations of the region for the 2007 BSEC Summit in Istanbul to consider how the
Organisation can best contribute to the development of a climate of good-neighbourliness
in the area and to promoting solutions to the existing problems as essential conditions
for unhindered cooperation, security and stability of the Black Sea space.
With the admission of Bulgaria and Romania, the European Union has come to the
Black Sea shore. This will give the EU the opportunity to grasp more clearly the importance
6 BSEC (1996), Moscow Declaration, Moscow, 25 October.
108 UNFOLDING THE BLACK SEA ECONOMIC COOPERATION VIEWS FROM THE REGION