The strategic importance of the Black Sea has much wider implications than just those which concern the six Black Sea riparian states (Turkey, Bulgaria, Romania, Ukraine, Russia and Georgia, to which it has become customary to add Moldova). It includes the East European and Balkan spaces, the Eastern Mediterranean and Eurasia (the Caucasus and the Caspian space).

Yet it remains a space that is little known, even though there are significant issues involved. Its possibilities justify a more active EU involvement.

What are the Issues?

The Black Sea is at one and the same time a ‘closed sea’ and a link in a geopolitical system which (if we consider events in the Caucasus) could even be described as a free-for-all.