EU – Black Sea Observatory

Monitoring and Policy Research This task includes monitoring political and economic developments in the Black Sea region including the relevant EU policies and initiatives; reporting on current regional cooperation structures; preparing policy proposals. 

In this framework, the ICBSS has published the following policy briefs: 

- Japaridze, Tedo, Panagiota Manoli, Dimitrios Triantaphyllou and Yannis Tsantoulis. “The EU’s Ambivalent Relationship with BSEC: Reflecting on the Past, Mapping out the Future.” ICBSS Policy Brief, no. 20. Athens: ICBSS, January 2010. 
- Gavras, Panayotis and Ghinea Arminio Iorga. “The Impact of the Current Economic and Financial Crisis on the Black Sea Region.” ICBSS Policy Brief, no. 18. Athens: ICBSS, October 2009. 
- Stribis, Ioannis. “Pooling Forces in Protecting the Black Sea Marine Environment: Actors and Actions.” ICBSS Policy Brief, no. 17. Athens: ICBSS, October 2009. 
- Stribis, Ioannis. “Black Sea Sectoral Partnerships: A Tentative Model.” ICBSS Policy Brief, no. 14. Athens: ICBSS, April 2009. 
- Tsantoulis, Yannis. “Black Sea Synergy and Eastern Partnership: Different Centres of Gravity, Complementarity or Confusing Signals?” ICBSS Policy Brief, no. 12. Athens: ICBSS, February 2009. 
- Japaridze, Tedo. “A Memo on How to Make the EU-BSEC Relations Relevant and Productive.” ICBSS Policy Brief, no. 11. Athens: ICBSS, February 2009. 
- Manoli, Panagiota and Stelios Stavridis. “An Emerging Euro–Black Sea Parliamentary Dimension: Contributing to the Black Sea Synergy.” ICBSS Policy Brief, no. 9. Athens: ICBSS, December 2008. 

Media Monitoring 

Media monitoring is carried out through the systematic review of foreign press and policy publications. An output of this activity is the Black Sea News Update (BSNU). 

The BSNU is a fortnightly brief of political and economic developments covering the Black Sea region. 

The BSNU pdf files are available for download.


Visa Policy Monitoring 

Monitoring developments in the European context regarding visa issuing for citizens of the Black Sea states. 

Visa Brief No. 4 - January 2010 
Visa Brief No. 3 - September 2009 
Visa Brief No. 2 - June 2009 
Visa Brief No. 1 - March 2009 

Networking Networking will be ongoing and includes promoting the organisation of the International Black Sea Symposium. 

The Symposium is targeted at young experts and professionals from the Black Sea region. 

Duration: 12 November 2008 – 11 November 2010 (24 months) 

Funding Source: Hellenic Ministry of Foreign Affairs