THE BLACK SEA FORUM
FOR DIALOGUE AND PARTNERSHIP

  The Concept:

Most relevant characteristics of the Black Sea region are:

•  It is the place that generates the linkage between the geo-strategic “tectonic” plates of the trans-Atlantic community, the former soviet space and the Broader Middle East;

•  It is also an area with important potential in terms of energy security , connecting the Western world to the Caspian Sea energy basin;

•  The Black Sea area witnessed important democratic transformations through the Rose Revolution in Georgia and the Orange Revolution in Ukraine , while still coping with challenges of frozen conflicts and fighting trans-border crime in view of insuring security and stability.

The key to stability in the region is broader regional dialogue, which in turn would favour economic development and enable the region to move from marginality to the very centre of the new European space.

Promoting European values and encouraging European aspirations would be strong incentives for democratic transformations across the Black Sea region. They could become the basis for and a stimulus of regional cooperation. Anchoring the Black Sea region to the European and Euro-Atlantic community, through revived regional interdependencies and successful internal reforms, would be part of the same process of reunification and reconciliation that changed Central and Southeast Europe irreversibly after the demise of communism.

The aim of the Forum is to create an overarching structure of engagement within and with the region, in order to forge a regional vision and a common mind-set and to shape coordinating structures based on that common vision. The ultimate aim is to transform the entire region into a zone of secure sovereign countries, sharing viable market economies, enjoying open and responsive systems of government, and to maintain strong links and interdependencies with the Euro-Atlantic community, with the prospect of further extending and consolidating the area of freedom, security and stability on the whole shore of the Black Sea and beyond.

Objectives of the Forum:

•  to underline the importance of Black Sea region stability and highlight the value of democratic transformations and European aspirations of Black Sea countries;

•  to offer a new platform and new opportunities for countries in the region to present their views about the region's future, thus promoting regional interests in a cooperative manner, based upon solidarity and transparency;

•  to enhance regional identity through defining common challenges, interests, and needs of regional countries, as well as common solutions to common problems;

•  to enable the re-emergence of the Black Sea regional market, interconnected with the European economic area;

•  to facilitate a broad regional dialogue between governmental and non-governmental organizations and help them channel resources to agreed targets;

•  to generate new ideas on conflict prevention and crisis management, providing new opportunities to develop a multilateral context within which regional countries can cooperate;

•  to highlight the unexplored potential and areas of regional cooperation and the value of collaboration with international institutions already involved in the region;

•  to enhance co-operation and educational exchanges among academic institutions as a long-term investment in regional security;

•  to increase synergy of efforts among all actors engaged in the region (regional and international organizations, individual countries), based upon agreed priorities and to facilitate the emergence of an external critical mass to act as "unofficial" guarantors of democratic stability in the region.