16th session of the Congress – Strasbourg (France)

5 March 2009

Speech by Ludmila SFIRLOAGA, on Black Sea Euroregion initiative

Distinguished guests

Colleagues

Ladies and gentlemen

I am pleased to open the debate on the Black Sea Euroregion initiative.

As you may remember, the Congress built the framework for the “Black Sea Euro-region initiative” at 3 major conferences: in Constanta in March 2006, in Samsun in November 2006 and finally in Odessa in June 2007.

Allow me to say that, as for the Adriatic Euroregion, the Black Sea Euroregion initiative is proving to be a success. The Black Sea Euroregion was established in Varna last September where the draft Constituent Act and the draft Statutes were signed. The members partners of the Euroregion - local and regional authorities from Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Moldova, and Romania - agreed to create the Euroregion in the form of a non-profit association. They also agreed to establish the Euroregion’s legal seat in Constanta and to create a network of local contact points in cities such as Samsun, Odessa, Varna, Batumi, Cahul, and Idjevan. Other contact points can be established in the future, upon request.

The BSER held its first General Assembly in Constanta in last November and launched a series of interesting projects. It will operate in very sensitive areas: environmental protection; renewable energies; maritime transport; sustainable tourism; intercultural exchange and migrations. All these are domains in which partnerships between local and regional authorities can contribute to the well-being of their citizens.

It is satisfying to note that the Congress took up the challenge of the local and regional authorities of the Black Sea area which wanted to develop direct inter-municipal and inter-regional co-operation projects. The high economic, social and environmental stakes represented by these maritime areas require much closer co-operation between the cities and regions in order to improve the prosperity, stability and security of their populations.

The idea of creating a new Euroregion, entailing multilateral co-operation between cities and regions of the European Union and outside the Union seemed to be a good one. The establishment of the Euroregion will provide a co-operation framework at local and regional level that will supplement those that already exist at the level of national governments, in particular within the Organisation of the Black Sea economic co-operation (BSEC). It would be desirable to hold consultations between the Congress and BSEC. (We did invite BSEC to take part in the present debate but unfortunately this Organisation had to decline our invitation).

With the Black Sea Euroregion, territorial authorities now have a framework for creating synergies, co-ordinating their efforts, exchanging experiences and best practices and developing the competences of local and regional authorities. The BSER can now serve as a launching pad for multilateral initiatives and projects, using existing European and international financial mechanisms to implement them.

We hope that local and regional Authorities from other countries of the Black Sea Area (in particular Turkey, Ukraine and Russia) will soon join the Euroregion.

As far as the Chamber of Regions is concerned, we are also planning to prepare a report on the Black Sea Euroregion, to be submitted to the Congress for adoption during the next months.

Our guests and members of the Euroregion will now give us their considerations on the first steps taken by the BSER and hopefully on the possibilities of other authorities joining the Black Sea Euroregion.