ROMANIA AND WBSR: BSEC AND/OR GUAM MARK

The reality of the EU neighbourhood strategy is more controversial because the EU must make the choice between “cordone sanitaire” and regional actions plans regarding the Wider Black Sea Region. Fortunately, Romania is the possible advocate of the Black Sea Region in Brussels with a Black Sea role that draws inspiration from Finland’s role in the Northern Dimension. However, the EU must be heavily involved in its neighbouring of the Black Sea in unilateral, bilateral or multilateral ways, for avoiding the lack of EU interest in the region. The time has come for some new Black Sea regional initiatives. From the political structures of the region the present paper chooses two: Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) and GUAM (Georgia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan and Moldova). The GUAM summit (May 2005, Chisinau) showed the beginnings of a new regional politics and diplomacy. The future GUAM Mark 2 shall have a new name along the lines Democracy and Development Organization. The EU would like to include Russia in regional initiatives. Anti-Russian projects, such as the GUAM, are counterproductive for regionalism in the Black Sea. However, the future of the Wider Black Sea Region (WBSR) must take into account the valuable position of Romania.