AER Black Sea Regional Policy Conference

AER President Michèle Sabban invited key political stakeholders from the Black Sea to exchange ideas, to network and to identify key areas of inter-regional cooperation along the Black Sea coast over the next years. The conference took place in Paris (Ile-de-France) on 15-16 February 2010.

Aim and Objectives

The conference gathered representatives from the regions of Ukraine, Russia, Georgia, Turkey, Bulgaria and Romania. Additionally the political diplomatic representatives of these countries to France, financial and economic actors actively took part here as well. The main objective of the Conference was to discuss the challenges and opportunities that present themselves for regional governments in the Black Sea region and to identify concrete approaches for cooperation initiatives in the region.

What are the existing organisations, instruments and programmes in the Black Sea Region? How do the regions in the various Black Sea countries look like? What are their competences and potentials in terms of interregional cooperation?

The conference focused on two issues: water management and sustainable tourism. Some of the regions have direct access to the Black Sea, some do not. Some have already a well  established tourism sector, some are still developing one. To exchange best practices and explore cooperation frameworks was a set goal of this conference.

Besides the exchange of views and best practices, the conferene also constituted a starting point of a series of events and projects organised by AER in the Black Sea Region.