The CEI and BSEC signed a Memorandum of Understanding (MoU) on 7 March 2011 at the BSEC Headquarters in Istanbul. Signed by BSEC Secretary General Ambassador Leonidas Chrysanthopoulos and CEI Secretary General Ambassador Gerhard Pfanzelter, the MoU is expected to provide a general framework for strengthening the relations between both organisations by coordinating the activities on issues of common interest on a regular basis.
“Contact points” will be designated by each party who, in order to achieve efficient cooperation, will coordinate the work on specific activities such as a mutual use of professional expertise, exchange of information on economic issues which are relevant for regional cooperation, exchange of information on current and planned activities of common interest to both parties, creation of a calendar of meetings and publications, interaction between the secretariats’ experts, ensuring visibility and providing public information coverage for joint events and activities through different tools (e.g. newsletters and websites).
The next step will be the organisation of a technical meeting between the experts of the two organisations, envisaged to be held soon.
The initial steps towards the MoU were taken in a number of ad-hoc consultations among the two oldest and most experienced regional fora in the past, when a number of areas of collaboration were identified such as environment, energy, transport, agriculture and science and technology.
Both the CEI and BSEC have a strategic membership with six Member States in common. Both organisations are committed to facilitating the way of their Member States towards further European integration, not to mention the fact that the Black Sea is a dynamic space of strategic importance.
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BSEC, spearheaded by Turkey in the early 1990s, was established in 1992. It was essentially designed as an economic initiative, based on the principle that an improvement in economic relations, region’s political issues would be more easily solved. As such, the organization has largely avoided any political discussion that could overshadow economic cooperation. BSEC is currently coordinating two major projects, the Black Sea Ring Highway and the Motorways of the Sea. The Black Sea Ring Highway project aims to build 7,700 kilometers of highway through all BSEC countries in a ring around the Black Sea with connections to urban centres in the region. It was first proposed to the BSEC Ministers in 2006 and then launched in 2008.
from left: Ambassador Chrysanthopoulos and Ambassador Pfanzelter