The Need for an EU Black Sea Policy

The Union’s neighbourhood policy, covering the Sahara to the Caspian Sea, often seems abstract, paltry and rather unambitious. In the Black Sea region, Europeans cannot continue to leave to others the task of handling conflicts and economic exchanges between riparian countries with whom they share long-term and close cultural and economic ties.Rather than treat each Black Sea State as a special case, supported by a different legal framework (a “strategic partnership” with Russia, a “customs union and pre-accession strategy” with Turkey, or a “neighbourhood plan” with the Ukraine), Andreas Schockenhoff suggests a pragmatic regional approach based on common regional interest projects. In his opinion, a mere neighbourhood policy cannot meet this region’s energy, economic, environmental and security (organized crime, arms and drugs trafficking, war zones) challenges, which the EU and the riparian Black Sea States will need to confront jointly. This broadened non-sectoral cooperation should be politically managed by an EU-Black Sea Council, based on the Baltic Council model, which would have initiative and coordination responsibilities. Such a project would lend more substance to cooperation between the Union and the other great powers in this region, Russia and Turkey—with which the EU hopes to pursue talks as equals.