Xenophon Paper 2 pdf - ICBSS

music, etc.). Greece has also undertaken the lead of the Working Group on Education
along with that of Culture. In its Action Plan for the working group, priority is given to
university research, the application of information technologies, the dissemination of
information in higher education, mobility and training programmes.
Another sector in which Greece has been active is transport. In this field Greece has been
promoting the idea of the creation of a ring road around the Black Sea, exploiting and
reinforcing the existing road links, suggesting that the abovementioned route be named
the ‘Argonauts Road’, since the tale of the seafaring heroes represents a historically
connecting myth for the whole region. Since the wider Black Sea region does not only
constitute a major market for Greek products but even more it is the only land connecting
the country by road with the rest of Europe and beyond, building transport infrastructure
has been in the core of Greece’s concerns. Along with the ‘Argonauts Road’ that would
build a Black Sea ring road, other transport projects that have been promoted in
neighbouring countries and co-financed by the Hellenic Plan for Economic Reconstruction
of the Balkans include: the construction of a part of the Pan-European Corridor X, of 86,7
km in Serbia and 33,2 km in the Former Yugoslav Republic of Macedonia (FYROM) and
the upgrading of the road network in South Albania. Maritime links are also promoted
by Greece which has been engaged in the promotion of the EUís concept of Motorways
of the Sea in the BSEC region.
Other sectors where interest has been displayed by Greece but no concrete action has
been advanced at a regional level include trade, energy and environmental protection.
Though Greece has been a supporter of initiatives in these fields within the BSEC
framework, there has been limited room for the advancement of concrete BSEC-wide
projects. Nevertheless, Greece has been the country coordinator of the ad hoc Group
of Experts on Electrical Networks (2005-2006). As oil and gas supply and transport have
been treated so far as a ‘hard’ security issue by the regional states, Greece has encouraged
regional cooperation in another field of energy security, namely electric power. Work
within the relevant ad hoc Group of Experts has indicated that despite significant technical
problems regarding the integration of electrical grids of the BSEC member states there
is great potential on advancing mutually beneficial cooperation in this field.
Greece has been reluctant to expand the agenda of the BSEC to hard security issues
on the basis that the Organisation does not have appropriate tools or the mandate to
undertake steps on conflict prevention and resolution. It nevertheless did not object to
engage the BSEC with ‘soft’ security matters and assisted in the drafting of the ‘Background
Paper on ways and means of enhancing the BSEC contribution to strengthening security
and stability in the region’ which was concluded in 2005. 22
22 Text available on http://www.icbss.org.
78 UNFOLDING THE BLACK SEA ECONOMIC COOPERATION VIEWS FROM THE REGION