Caucaz.com - Tbilisi, Georgia
At the same time as the EU is extending its borders to the East, the Black Sea region is developing as a dynamic area of increasing strategic significance and recently, cooperation initiatives have multiplied between new EU members and new EU neighbours. However, until recently, regional cooperation was mostly characterised by its ineffectiveness.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, trust and cooperation were scarce in the post-Communist space. This situation was to a large extent a legacy of the watertight borders that prevailed under Communism between satellite States and Soviet republics as part of Kremlin policy.
After regaining independence, most post-Communist countries focused their attention on a new centre: this time it was Brussels. Developing links with their immediate neighbours was not a priority. This was encouraged by the fact that the EU itself favoured bilateral relationships with Eastern European countries. The objective of integration into Euro-Atlantic structures determined the foreign policy of most post-Communist countries, sometimes to the detriment of their Eastern policy.
Post-Communist countries engaged in the process of rediscovering? their Europeanness and strived to present their Communist past as an interlude?. However, in this quest for identity, they soon became aware of the need to recreate regional historical entities to replace the faceless post-Communist space to which they had been identified. Regional organisations were created to give a voice and a face to these aspirations. The Vi_egrad Union was one such organization that aimed at unifying Central European countries. Nevertheless, it never proved effective in developing common policy goals. The revival of regional organizations in the Black Sea: new wine in old bottles? The Black Sea region has witnessed many similar attempts in the past years, even if the entities that have emerged are not always historically traceable. The Black Sea region is not a historic region, but was traditionally more of a frontier between Ottoman, Russian and Persian empires. Most of the countries that borders the Black Sea gained their independence at the beginning of the 20th century.
However, since the end of the Cold War, it is developing into an area of strategic significance, where big powers are competing for influence: it is a transit region for future pipelines from the Caspian Sea and it hosts frozen conflicts in regions such as Transnistria, Abkhazia, South Ossetia and Nagorno-Karabakh, which are believed to be transit points for trafficking in arms and drugs. Against this background and given its proximity, the EU has a clear interest in the development of Black Sea cooperation as a means to promote stability.
The Black Sea is increasingly moving in this direction as witnessed by numerous cooperation initiatives in recent years. In particular, there have been attempts at revitalizing organizations such as GUAM (initially Georgia-Ukraine-Azerbaidjan-Moldova)and BSEC (Black Sea Economic Cooperation). The coloured revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia have encouraged new cooperation initiatives such as the alliance of democracies from the Baltic to the Black Sea? promoted by Georgian President Saakashvili and Ukrainian President Yushchenko.
GUAM and BSEC
For the countries surrounding the Black Sea ? with the exception of Turkey ?, the quest for a fresh identity and the rejection of their Communist past is signified by a reduction of Russian influence in the region. GUAM (GUUAM when Uzbekistan was still a member) was created as an alternative to the CIS, which was not seen by the GUAM founding members as a guarantee for their security and more crucially their sovereignty and independence. They criticized CIS peacekeeping operations for their ineffectiveness and lack of neutrality.
GUAM was founded in 1997 by Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova. From the outset, it was designated by the Kremlin as an anti-Russian alliance. The Kremlin started verbal attacks on the organization, which was seen as a vehicle for U.S. interests in the region. Indeed, the United States supported the creation of the organization and in their founding statements, GUAM members expressed their wish to cooperate closely with NATO. Despite numerous declarations, GUAM revealed itself a weak organization that has never implemented any of its common statements.
However, in the aftermath of the coloured revolutions in Ukraine and Georgia, there have been attempts at capitalizing on the new regional context and revitalizing the organization, in particular with the Chisinau summit of April 2005, which Lithuania and Romania attended as observers. The final declaration outlined three major goals: a new approach to conflict resolution in the region with increased international support, further democratisation of post-Soviet space and cooperation with the EU.
The BSEC (Black Sea Economic Cooperation) was founded in 1992 by 11 members (Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Turkey and Ukraine). BSEC is also considered rather ineffective patly due to its broad scope of activities (it has 12 working groups in areas ranging from cooperation on statistics to tourism). However, the BSEC has recently developed more focused initiatives in areas where the EU might have an interest such as visa facilitation, transport and communication networks, organized crime and a stronger emphasis on security issues and conflict resolution. The initial aim of BSEC, of which Russia is also a member, was more to promote economic cooperation as a confidence-building measure in the region. However, over the years, both organizations have been criticized for being more forums where nice political statements are made rather than efficient groupings that the EU might have an interest in supporting.
Visions or actions?
Further initiatives that have developed in the last years include the 3+3 format (Baltic Countries + South Caucasus Countries) or 3+1 format (Baltic countries + Georgia) and the Group of New Friends of Georgia (Bulgaria, Estonia, Lithuania, Latvia, Poland and Romania). All these initiatives aim at providing a forum for new EU member states to share their experience of integration into the Euro-Atlantic structures with their neighbours. Another aspect is the experience of Communism shared by all these countries. The Baltic states such as Lithuania or Latvia have declared that having experienced Communism and the transition to market democracy, they are better equipped to advise countries such as Georgia on their road to transition. At a press conference during a visit to Georgia, the chair of Lithuanias Seimas (Parliament), Arturas Paulauskas, stated, We are ready to share our positive and negative experiences from these years with you. You can learn from our mistakes and hopefully avoid them.?
Presidents Saakashvili and Yuchshenko, both adept at replacing the grey Communist past with colours, have developed recently the vision of a Baltic-Black Sea axis of democracies?. Again, it is an attempt to develop a vision that might inspire other countries in the post-Soviet space. This was illustrated in the way Saakashvili played on history and its symbols by presenting this initiative as a new Yalta in an article in the Washington Post in May 2005, thus underlining the demise of the old division of Europe. However, the founding summit of the Saakashvili-Yushchenko Community of Democratic Choice?, which had initially been set to take place in Yalta, was later moved to Borjomi in Georgia, as Ukrainian President Yushchenko was at the time keen on improving relations with Russia. The terminology used in its founding statements, such as New Frontier of Freedom?, suggests that the alliance is perhaps more a signal to the United States than to the EU.
The difficulty faced by such initiatives is the fact that visions based on history cannot replace practical steps and often lack substance. They may turn into hot air, before having any chance to cement regional identities and cooperation ties. For this reason, bilateral initiatives between new EU member states and new neighbours seem more promising for the time being than multilateral alliances. The Baltic States in particular are providing help sector-wise and country-wise to the South-Caucasus countries in the three + three format?. A meeting of the foreign ministers of the six countries is scheduled in Brussels in December 2005 to prepare the meeting of the Presidents in Vilnius in 2006. This initiative mirrors the support that the then Baltic candidate countries received from Nordic countries Sweden, Norway and Finland during their transition from Communism. It proved effective in being target-oriented and in having clear purposes. The only hope for success for regional organisations in the Black Sea is to develop the same type of focused and practical steps that may indeed appeal to the EU. The BSEC is moving precisely in this direction with its stronger focus on migration, environmental and security issues.
The future of Black Sea cooperation
Although the Black Sea is gradually becoming a European Sea with the future accession of Bulgaria and Romania, the EU is still cautious in supporting cooperation initiatives in the region. This might be explained by the fact that the EU doesnt want to be seen as endorsing the goals of the countries in the region, which are characterised by the will to diminish Russian influence in the region and support for U.S. policy. The EU would rather see Russia included in regional cooperation efforts. However, two factors might increase EU support for Black Sea cooperation in the future: the new assistance instrument ENPI (European Neighbourhood Partnership Instrument) that encourages cross-border cooperation and the future memberships of Bulgaria and Romania. Romanian President Basescu has already declared that Black Sea cooperation could become a new priority for Romanian foreign policy and possibly for EU foreign policy during a future Romanian Presidency of the EU.
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