A Discussion of Regional Cooperation in the Southeast Europe Around the Black Sea in the Context of Subregionalism and Interregionalism

- Presentation speakers
  - Mukhtar Hajizada, Jean Monnet Chair, Khazar University, Baku, Azerbaijan
Abstract:

The wider Black Sea area has been undergoing an integrative process started in 1992. Originally only an initiative for regional cooperation between Turkey and the Soviet Union, it later gathered more adjacent countries, including the successor states of the communist bloc; and the process led to the establishment of the Organisation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) in 1998. The Black Sea regionalisation process is influenced by different but mainly three core regional actors. BSEC is a Turkish initiative in an area which is widely considered to be in Russia’s sphere of influence. Moreover, the region is in the Eastern Neighbourhood of the EU, which has been bidding for a core role. In that regards, this paper will discuss the Black Sea regionalisation process in the context of the relationship among the three core actors: Russia, Turkey and the EU and aim primarily at an empirical assessment of what the EU has done to promote regionalism in the wider Black Sea area.