Bulgaria Foreign Minister: EU Grows More Interested in Black Sea Region

Bulgaria's Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov (right) with the Secretary-General of the BSEC, Leonidas Chrysanthopoulos (left). Photo by BGNES

The EU is increasingly interested in the Black Sea region, stated Bulgarian Foreign Minister Nikolay Mladenov in the opening address to the 22nd Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organization (BSEC) in Sofia.

“As an EU member state, Bulgaria feels responsible for the development of the relations between the EU and the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC),” Mladenov declared in his statement during the Sofia forum which is entitled “EU’s Rising Interest in the Black Sea Region – an Engine for the Efficiency of the BSEC.”

Bulgaria assumed the rotating presidency of the BSEC on January 1, 2010. At the end of Friday’s meeting in Sofia it will pass it formally to Greece, which will chair the organization in the second half of 2010.

In his opening statement, Minister Mladenov underscored the fact the the dialogue between the EU and the BSEC has intensified during the Bulgarian presidency.

He pointed out that EU’s Black Sea Synergy and the Eastern Partnership Program are the two most important initiatives of the Union for supporting the stability and development of the Black Sea Region.

According to Mladenov, these initiatives are still very new and the ways in which they can contribute to the development of the region have not been fully explored yet.

In his words, Bulgaria tried to optimize and rationalize the work of the BSEC during its six-month presidency of the organization.

He believes that the major problem of the BSEC has to do with the lack of concrete projects that the members of the organization can realize together.

In his capacity as the Foreign Minister of Bulgaria, Mladenov is chairing Friday’s meeting of the BSEC in Sofia, which is attended by senior representatives of the 12 member states and about as many observe and partner states and organizations. Most of the countries are represented by deputy foreign ministers or ambassadors but high-profile speakers also include Iran’s Foreign Minister Maunchehr Mottaki, whose visit to Bulgaria is his first.

The topics on the agenda of the BSEC meeting in Sofia include a review of the cooperation with the organization, the discussing potential regional projects, appointing countries to coordinate some of the working groups, and considering new sectoral partners.

The BSEC was launched on 25 June 1992, with a meeting of the heads of state and government of eleven countries: Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine signed in Istanbul the Summit Declaration and the Bosphorus Statement giving birth to the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC).

The BSEC Headquarters - the Permanent International Secretariat of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC PERMIS) - was established in March 1994 in Istanbul.

With the entry into force of its Charter on 1 May 1999, BSEC acquired international legal identity and was transformed into a full-fledged regional economic organization : Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation. With the accession of Serbia and Montenegro in April 2004, the Organization’s Member States increased to twelve.

BSEC covers a geography encompassing the territories of the Black Sea littoral States, the Balkans and the Caucasus with an area of nearly 20 million square kilometers, a population of 350 million with a foreign trade capacity of over USD 300 B annually. After the Persian Gulf region, it is the second-largest source of oil and natural gas along with its rich proven reserves of minerals and metals, and is becoming Europe's major transport and energy transfer corridor.

The observers at the BSEC are Egypt, Austria, Belarus, Croatia, Czech Republic, France, Germany, Israel, Italy, Poland, Slovakia, Tunisia, USA, International Black Sea Club, Energy Charter Secretariat, Black Sea Commission, European Commission.

The BSEC sectoral dialogue partners include Hungary, Iran, Jordan, Montenegro, UK, Black Sea International Shipowners Association (BINSA), Black & Azov Seas Ports Association (BASPA), Union of Road Transport Association in the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Region (BSEC-URTA), Black Sea Region Association of Shipbuilders and Shiprepairers (BRASS), Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe (CPMR), Danube Commission, International Network for SMEs (INSME), Regional Commonwealth in the Field of Communications (RCC).

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