International Conference Launch of the Black Sea Euroregion

Varna, Bulgaria, 26 September 2008

Speech by President Yavuz Mildon Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe

Distinguished Mayor of Varna,

Distinguished Chair of the Varna Municipal Council,

Ministers,

Excellencies,

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a great pleasure for me to address this Conference, which marks the final step after two years of efforts to bring to fruition a project of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe – the Black Sea Euroregion, which we will be launching today.

I wish to thank the authorities of Bulgaria and most particularly of the beautiful city of Varna for offering to host this event on the very shores of the sea which is in the centre of our project, and which was known to ancient Greek seafarers under the name Pontos Euxeinos – “hospitable sea”. This image of the Black Sea, which is friendly and accommodating, lies at the heart of our ambitions and aspirations – those of building a space for cooperation between our communities, between cities and regions bordering on or linked to the Black Sea within its vast basin.

On its shores rest historical traditions of enormous length – traditions of commercial and cultural exchanges, traditions of co-existence of civilisations and religions, traditions of discovery and exploration. A crossroads of Europe and Asia and thus of major political and economic interests, the Black Sea region has been throughout its history a hub for migratory flows and economic endeavours, but also a chessboard for geopolitical games and territorial conquest, representing both great potential for cooperation to be explored, and a source of tension and conflict. Rich in energy resources, this is also a region of important transit routes for energy supplies, which is an asset fraught with potential rivalry – much as is its ethnic diversity. We must not forget that the Black Sea region which has been harbouring four “frozen” conflicts, one of which has just exploded into armed hostilities; a region which has been confronted with ecological fragility, environmental problems, and challenges of illegal migration and organised crime. 

Our aspirations for the Black Sea Euroregion today, as they were two years ago when we embarked on this ambitious project at the conference in Constanta, Romania, in March 2006, are to build bridges between regions and municipalities of the basin in the political, economic, social and cultural spheres. We in the Congress are convinced that developing intermunicipal and interregional cooperation can serve as a counterbalance and a sound alternative to ethnic strife and conflicts between states.

We have drawn our experience from our efforts in South-East Europe after the Balkan wars, where our projects aimed at restoring trust and building confidence between communities brought fruit, culminating in the creation of the Network of Associations of Local Authorities of South-East Europe, NALAS, and of the Adriatic Euroregion – the latter in the same year as when we launched the Black Sea Euroregion project. The Adriatic Euroregion, governed by the Adriatic Council, brought together local and regional authorities around the Adriatic Sea; today, following this success, we want to apply our experience to the Black Sea as well.

In fact, the Black Sea Euroregion project stems from the initiative launched by the Congress a few years ago of setting up Euroregions of a new generation around Europe’s semi-closed seas: The idea was, and remains today, to create people-to-people synergies by bringing together local and regional communities from member and candidate countries of the European Union and countries outside the EU. The Congress is particularly fit to develop projects of this type, having been actively promoting intermunicipal and interregional cooperation between bordering communities. The importance of such cooperation was emphasised in the Madrid Convention on transfrontier cooperation, adopted in 1980.

The first such project, the Adriatic Euroregion which I have just mentioned, is now fully operational. We strongly hope that the new Euroregion, coming into being today, will contribute to the ‘Black Sea Synergy’. This vast geographical area includes also – which has always been our wish – countries not having direct access to the Black Sea but closely linked to it. I am talking about Armenia, Azerbaijan, Greece, Moldova and Serbia, all members of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation Organisation, BSEC. We also hope that the establishment of this Euroregion will give further impetus to the reflection on the creation of a Baltic Sea Euroregion, another sea of considerable historic importance for our continent.

Coming back to the Black Sea Euroregion, I would like to stress that the aim of this project is to create a platform for pragmatic cooperation in the economic and social fields at the regional and local level, which we wee as complementary to the intergovernmental activities carried out by BSEC. The Congress has already held preliminary discussions with the Secretary General of BSEC, Ambassador Leonidas Chrysanthopoulos, and would expect the two organisations, the Black Sea Euroregion and BSEC, to conclude an eventual agreement setting out modalities for their cooperation.

The Black Sea Euroregion, which will be born at this Conference, has been advanced over the past two years through three international conferences – in Constanta, which I have already mentioned and which will host the registered office of the Euroregion; in Samsun, in my home country of Turkey, whose municipalities made an important contribution to the success of this initiative; and in Odessa, Ukraine, which has been a long-standing partner of the Congress in our efforts to promote interregional cooperation.

These conferences provided for an analysis of the problems faced by local and regional authorities in the Black Sea basin and identified the main areas of cooperation as the protection of the environment, development of intercultural exchanges and social cohesion, management of migration flows, transport, energy, promotion of sustainable tourism, and exchanges of good governance practices. 

As we gather here in Varna to sign the Constituent Act of the Black Sea Euroregion, thus we are effectively ending the preparatory phase of this initiative – coming to the line saying “Start”. We are now on our marks, and this conference in Varna is indeed the final “Go!”.

With the launch of the Black Sea Euroregion, territorial communities will now have a framework for creating synergies, coordinating their efforts, exchanging experiences and best practices and developing competences of local and regional authorities. It will also serve as a launching pad for multilateral initiatives and projects, using existing European and international financial mechanisms to implement them.

Ladies and Gentlemen,

Vincent van Gogh once said: “The fishermen know that the sea is dangerous and the storm terrible, but they have never found these dangers sufficient reason for remaining ashore.” Two years ago, we embarked on this new endeavour, not frightened by the dangers of a stormy sea but seeing them as a challenge in achieving our goal, in building a boat which is the Black Sea Euroregion. Today, the boat is ready to sail. Let us get on board not as countries, cities and regions separated by the sea, but as a Euroregion united by it.