By Agim Pasholli
Soon after the fall of the Berlin wall, Europe was facing a delicate situation, with drastic geopolitical changes, occurred mainly due to the collapse of the Soviet block and of the communism (in general) as a political system.The vacuum in democratic values, in political and economical reforms, in many countries was very evident and problematic. Many top officials and leaders from various governments of the newly sovereign states, in Eastern, Central and Northern Europe, started to discuss and exchange views among themelves. The battle horse of such consultations was the issue of an existing very weak regional cooperation. The main attention during such formal/informal meetings was mostly given to the idea of finding the ways to gather/invite the countries in transition to the market economy into a regional structure/forum or initiative. On the other side, they were of the opinion that the participation also from countries of Western Europe with uninterrupted experience and history in market economy, should be encouraged and considered to be an advantageous one.
Albania is one of the founder countries of the regional initiative called Black Sea Economic Cooperation-BSEC. While, in principle, my country was not a country “wet” (with the Black) by the sea, with its membership to BSEC, the Albanian intention was to show to the other countries in the region that it is very much interested to forge good neighborhood relations, to strengthen the economic ties with all the countries in this region, in brief to be a serious regional partner.
We are counting and appreciating the benefits of our membership to the regional initiatives in a satisfactory manner and we attach particular importance to all regional initiatives in the areas close to our country. So far we are member to the CEI, AII, SECI, SEECP, SP, MARRI and BSEC. During 2006 we had the chairmanship -in -office in the CEI (Central European Initiative) and AII (Adriatic and Ionian Initiative).We believe that one year period for each of the above mentioned chairmanship was a very good occasion for us to manage, moderate and guide the activities and projects of these initiatives.
From 1992, the initial phase of the BSEC history , begun an engagement of the Albanian institutions expressed not only with the participation in various fora but also with an active role and with their goodwill to reach consensus in many debates that take place within BSEC. It has fulfilled the usual obligations deriving from such membership, starting from the mandatory financial contributions going to the fulfillment of chairmanship With a constructive spirit of cooperation, Albanian participants started to contribute to the issues of common concern/interest and to work closely with other colleagues from different BSEC Member States. As a Member State, our country has showed that (IT)has a real interest to work at regional context especially in some very important domains such as Energy, Transport and Security matters.
Albania considers that its own main strategic objective, the European Integration, is coinciding with the main target of the majority of the BSEC Member States.
We think that the future EU integration of our region, as a strategic action, is the only one to be chosen, and this is the best way we should go further and progress.
Today the composition of the BSEC organization consists of 12 Member States in different stage of the democratic reforms and different phase of membership vis-ஶis European Union. The case of having inside the organization also three E.U. Members, we believe is special opportunity to share the positive experiences of applied reforms and constant actions on sustainable development.
Our country in 2006 signed SAA agreement with EU and we are very much engaged to go further more towards the process of European Integration.
We are happy to see that BSEC is also playing a positive role towards such a target
Everybody agree that an important progress of regional cooperation within the framework of BSEC is achieved. And we are glad for that the organization is now trying to define the skeleton for a continuous dialogue and cooperative action between the BSEC and the EU. This action/cooperation needs to be mutually beneficial and result -oriented one.
We are convinced that the cooperation we are doing and we are trying to strengthen in the form of sub-regional or regional cooperation is a stepping stone towards the integration in general and a sin e qua non condition for the integration into EU in particular. This process as a whole is a school and it serves, in addition, as a training ground.
While our goal is to speed up the process of our European integration, Europe is targeting to transform itself into a stronger global player. Better then before, the new century we entered some years before, seems to be the century of challenges towards integrations and globalization.
For the majority of BSEC Member States, one important way to be followed for European Integration should be through strengthening the role of the regional cooperation, making it more vital. Strengthening of this key role in our region means, that his tool, should better contribute for a lasting peace, reconciliation, improvement and development of civil society, for the improvement of the economic situation in our countries, to the creation of new job opportunities, adoption of strategies for a sustainable development, better use of the potentials of our region, protection of the environment, etc.
Now let us take into consideration now the fact that the EU target for this decade is to become the most competitive and dynamic knowledge-based economy in the world. For reaching such goal, the European institutions are formulating better policies; they are stepping up the process of structural reform and modernization of European social model.
The Member States of the BSEC region need have the same attitude and not invent the wheel. The formulation of concrete, short term targets for this process of integration is a must for us. Our engagement at national level should be combined with that one at regional level and altogether should be targeting at European standards and European structures.
Among the objectives that we may put in our path to be paved towards European integration could be a proper combination between cooperation and competition at regional and European level, Another objective could be the possible involvement of BSEC Member States to participate to the respective European Working Groups,With proper objectives, the cooperation in our region should be undoubtedly a key factor to contribute to a deeper and quicker regional integration of our countries, to the prosperity and well-being.
The actual trend in Europe is the expansion process of European Union. This process has entered a special phase with last two wages of enlargement: the first during the year 2004, when ten new members joined the EU and the second by 1st January 2007, when two BSEC Member States, Bulgaria and Romania followed them. That is why today many people perceive Europe mostly as a work in progress rather than a defined territory or/and an economic / political structure/grouping
But what is the specific role that BSEC is doing nowadays.(?) As you all know, BSEC is a full-fledged regional economic organization being at the same time the only one acting in our region. It is a well structured and institutionalized organization.
BSEC is a very good example among the similar regional grouping and initiatives, which possesses proper (adequate) mechanisms and instruments of cooperation like it is the case of Project Development Fund .With the mandate given at the BSEC Summits BSEC has expanded its activities beyond the usually explored issue of regional economic cooperation.BSEC has approved an important document called The Platform for Cooperation between BSEC and EU. And now has arrived the time when BSEC is trying to update it entirely.
A constant ambition of the BSEC is the action to increase the credibility of BSEC in the Black Sea region and beyond and to facilitate the presence of EU in this region.
The BSEC’s main compass for its prospects is the BSEC Economic Agenda-For the Future-Towards a More Consolidated, Effective and Viable BSEC Partnership. This basic document, seen as a strategy oriented to reach BSEC common goals need to be constantly revised and updated. This Agenda should equip BSEC Member States with a forward-looking approach and highlights the need for the adoption of a regional strategy for sustainable development, identifying regional, national and sectoral comparative advantages. One of the main pillars of the Agenda is to offer a better economic integration of its Member States as a precondition for inclusion of the BSEC region in a broader European economic space.
There is also a very important fact: admitting or not, today we are living in a world whose main distinguished tendency is the globalization.
The next Turkish Chairmanship in BSEC will be a very good opportunity for Turkey to show its ability as a capable regional actor to boost regional cooperation by moderating dialogue, managing the work of the various meetings, promoting projects of common interest etc. We believe that Turkish chairmanship will be a splendid one, not only due to the fact that Turkey is hosting the headquarters of the organization, but also because this chairmanship is coinciding with the 15.th anniversary of the organization.
The author is Director on the Department of Multilateral Initiatives, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Albania
