EURODIALOGUE
Journal of International Relations, European, Economic and Social Studies
2. Black Sea Synergy The EU is quite interested in the region and more specifically in the activities of the BSEC. The European Commission developed a concept called Black Sea Synergy in its paper entitled Commission’s 2007 Enlargement Strategy Paper. On 10 July 2008, the European Parliament adopted a resolution based on the 2007 Enlargement Strategy Paper which makes a specific reference to the Black Sea region and more specifically to the BSEC. It reiterates the “importance of devising a more sophisticated and comprehensive EU Strategy for the Black Sea region that goes beyond the current synergy initiative and envisages the establishment of a Black Sea Cooperation Agreement, which should include the EU, Turkey, all Black Sea littoral States as equal partners, while seeking the full involvement of Russia, and which could, at a later stage, develop into a Union of the Black Sea countries.” The EU believes that such a multilateral framework would offer the countries involved the possibility of strengthening their cooperation with the EU across a wide variety of policy areas. 3. Suspended Cold War conflicts Another reason that makes this region important is the existence of several suspended conflicts. Though they have been referred to as “frozen conflicts” - referred to here as “suspended”- some of them are not entirely “frozen” or suspended, as they break out again from time to time. There are several common features in four suspended conflicts in the Black Sea basin, namely in Transnistria, Nogorno Karabakh, South Ossetia and Abkhazia. One of the common features is that they all resulted from the dismemberment of the Soviet Union. Second, all of them are within the territory of the former Soviet Union. Third, the Russian Federation is the major player in all of them. Only the conflict in Transnistria will be taken up in this section; the three others will be taken up under the section on the Caucasus. Trans-Dniester (Transnistria) The breakaway State of Trans-Dniester (Transnistria) was born when the Soviet Union began to fall apart. The Moldovan territories on the left bank of the river Dniester were inhabited by a mainly Russian-speaking population
Turkey on the European doorstep
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