Xenophon Paper 2 pdf - ICBSS

It is proposed that the ENPI be divided into two ‘windows’. The first will focus on crossborder
cooperation, while the second “will provide more flexible support for wider transnational
cooperation involving actors and beneficiaries from both EU member states
and partner countries”. Although programmes in Window One will be mainly bilateral,
“multilateral programmes may be established in particular over those maritime crossings
where distance and other factors do not allow for efficient bilateral cross-border
cooperation”, with multi-annual programmes to be established for “single borders or
groups of border”. Tentative priority areas in Window Two include environment, energy,
transport and telecommunication networks, public health and the fight against crime.
A significant increase in funding is envisaged under the ENPI, which will become
operational under the EU’s new financial perspective from 2007 onwards. In addition,
the EU intends to open up project financing, so far unavailable, from the European
Investment Bank (EIB) for the ENP partners.
All this goes a long way towards providing a sound material foundation for the future
EU policies and practical activities in the Black Sea region once the appropriate political
decisions are made.
The European Neighbourhood Policy was initiated in spring 2002, focusing initially on
the three ‘New Neighbours’: Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus. 6 The scope of the new
policy has subsequently been expanded in stages to include also the Southern
Mediterranean partners and the three South Caucasus states, increasing the number
of partner countries from three to sixteen. The expansion of the scope of the ENP has
increased the relevance of the Black Sea region to the new policy. Whereas the ENP
initially included only two of the twelve BSEC members, the programme now covers
half of its members. 7
Differentiation is a guiding principle of the European Neighbourhood Policy, with bilateral
Action Plans with the partner countries as its principal instrument. However, differentiation
should be “compatible with a coherent regional approach, especially where further
regional co-operation can bring clear benefits”, and “it is important to foster close
cooperation both across the EU’s external borders and among the neighbours themselves
- especially among those that are geographically close to each other”. 8 For this purpose,
the twenty eight pages ENP Strategy Paper includes a three-page section on regional
cooperation, in addition to numerous references to regional and multilateral cooperation
throughout the document. But in spite of the relative prominence of the term ‘regional
6 It was initially known as the ‘New Neighbours Initiative’, changing in 2003 to the ‘Wider Europe Initiative’, and
in 2004 to the current ‘European Neighbourhood Policy’.
7 Originally only Moldova and Ukraine, now also the three South Caucasus states and (partially) Russia.
8 Commission of the European Communities (2004), European Neighbourhood Policy: Strategy Paper, COM(2004)
373 final, Brussels, pp. 8 and 20 (further referred to as ENP Strategy Paper).
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