Financiarul

 

The European Union (EU) must strengthen ties with East European countries, Romanian Foreign Minister Lazar Comanescu said on November 25 at the conference “Eastern Partnership and the Black Sea Synergy: ways for cooperation, not for competition” staged by the European Institute in Romania and the Polish Embassy in Bucharest.
Comanescu reiterated that Romania has supported and continues to support the eastern neighbors’ bid for the EU and the cooperation with them.

 

There are two European instruments that ease cooperation among East European states and boost ties with the EU, namely, the Eastern Partnership and the Black Sea Synergy.
“The Eastern Partnership is a step towards strengthening Europe’s ties with the eastern side of the continent in both political and economic terms, especially in the field of energy and transport,” Lazarescu said.

 

Moreover, the Black Sea Synergy provides multiple cooperation ways among countries in the region, the minister explained. The complementariness between the Eastern Partnership and the Black Sea Synergy can lead to a good regional cooperation, as “they are different tools for the same area and should join efforts.”
In his turn, state secretary Mikolaj Dowgielewicz with the Committee for European Integration in Warsaw said the Eastern Partnership was initiated by Poland and Sweden, two different countries that see EU’s role in the same way.

 

“The Eastern Partnership is a positive agenda for the Eastern countries and a signal that the EU has not turned its back on them,” the Polish official said.
Countries like Georgia and Azerbaijan must be included in the Eastern Partnership, as EU needs them as friends and collaborators mainly in the field of energy, free trade, stability, Dowgielewicz said.

He underscored a harmonization of the Eastern Partnership and the European Commission policies is needed, in the field of energy in particular.

 

Also important is to identify a financial mechanism for the Eastern Partnership by allotting EU funds.
EU officials talk about the need to develop the Eastern Partnership and the Black Sea Synergy as two complementary instruments, Principal Adviser Janos Herman (European Commission, DG External Relations) said.
In his opinion, the Eastern partnership and the Black Sea Synergy that have to be complementary, are answers to events that took place in Eastern Europe.

 

The Black Sea Synergy is an answer to the moment of Bulgaria and Romania’s accession to the EU. The Synergy is based on regional cooperation, and participant countries are united by their geographic position.
The Eastern Partnership has in view countries that want to develop a close relation with the EU, and is based on the will of some states to get close to the Union.
In the future, Black Sea Synergy members must implement the programs that were proposed and that are aimed at forging partnerships in fields like environment, protection, free circulation, transports, security and the establishment of a Black Sea Institute of European Studies.

 

Cooperation within the Eastern Partnership is mainly based on the economic, trade, free circulation, energy and security fields.
The primary task of the initiative called the Black Sea Synergy, adopted by the EU in 2007, is the development of cooperation within the Black Sea region and also within the region as a whole and the European Union, thus adding a regional dimension to the European Neighboring Policy.

 

The Eastern Partnership was tabled by Poland and Sweden at the EU’s General Affairs and External Relations Council in Brussels on 26 May 2008.
It is a EU’s strategic concept for six eastern neighbors: Ukraine, the Republic of Moldova, Belarus, Azerbaijan, Armenia and Georgia and stipulates strengthened cooperation and dialogue with these countries and the process of their EU accession.