Athens , 8 June 2011

Mr. Chairman,

Dear Colleagues, 

Ladies and Gentlemen,

It is a real pleasure for me to participate in the 24th Meeting of the Council of Ministers for Foreign Affairs of the BSEC Organization in the hospitable city of Bucharest.

Let me thank Minister Baconschi for his warm welcome and Romania as BSEC Chairman-in-Office for hosting this meeting.

The wider Black Sea area is of vital economic and political importance. It is common sense to all BSEC Member States that its importance is further enhanced by the upcoming economic, political and energy developments in this region, including the South Corridor Plan linking the Region to the EU, with natural gas pipelines of which the ITGI interconnector stands as the most mature and efficient project. Internationally, Greece has included the Black Sea in the core priorities of the Greek Government’s Economic Diplomacy Plan.

The BSEC Organization itself is the oldest, most representative and institutionally developed regional Organization in this Area. Greece, as a founding member state of BSEC, has set as a permanent goal to safeguard the achievements so far reached within BSEC, supporting at the same time their enrichment with new initiatives.

Under the last Hellenic Chairmanship in Office, we set as a main priority and central theme the turn towards Green Development, which was explicitly reflected in its motto: “Black Sea turns green”.

Promoting Green Development opens new opportunities for sustainable economic activities, job creation, and, therefore, income generation. Furthermore it should be based on the promotion and implementation of new activities, in the context of the regional cooperation, through the adoption of common projects.

A tangible result of the Nafplio Meeting of the Ministers in charge of Energy of the BSEC Member States has been the creation of a task force approved by a Resolution during today’s Meeting, aiming at identifying common aspects of the Green Growth policies, exploring ways to promote Green Energy investments. 

I would like to mention the Business Forum on the promotion of Green Development and Entrepreneurship in the wider Black Sea Area held in Thessaloniki as a side event to the Meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs. The Forum gave the opportunity to actors and policy makers from the public and private sectors to discuss, exchange views and create synergies, focusing on a broad spectrum of business activities, such as renewable energy sources, biomass and biofuels, water management and wastewater treatment and others, whose promotion will create the appropriate context for a sustainable development.

Regional cooperation, coordinated and forward-looking approaches is the best and most efficient way to combat climate change. The Hellenic Chairmanship-in-Office proposed and elaborated together with the Member States the Joint Declaration for combating climate change, which was submitted as a common position of the BSEC Member States to the UN Convention on Climate Change, in Cancun last December. This initiative increased the visibility of our Organisation as the most important regional one in the wider Black Sea Area.

In the same context, I am glad to inform you, today, of the recent developments concerning the BSEC Hellenic Development Fund: We already have the outcome of the first call for proposals launched last February in the field of the renewable energy sources. Six (6) development projects have been selected out of twenty (20) submitted by organizations of BSEC Member States (Albania, Azerbaijan, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia and Turkey), as well as by BSEC Related Bodies (ICBSS and BSEC Business Council), by the means of a transparent evaluation procedure. These projects will be financed by the HDF with the total amount of 400,000 euros.

Dear Colleagues,

I firmly believe that we need to be fair in evaluating the BSEC achievements in the years since its creation, but also to be bold in recognizing its shortcomings, and to take concerted action in addressing them.

Such an approach emerges from our confidence in the future of the BSEC Organization and its potential to contribute to the enhancement of regional economic cooperation. We all are aware that BSEC, since its creation, has gradually become a point of reference in the region. Nineteen years after its establishment, we need to make sure that this becomes a mechanism for delivering results, a tool for long-term, sustainable development. 

With great pleasure I can see the considerable progress made under the Romanian Chairmanship in Office and I congratulate our Romanian Colleague for the work done so far, in order to promote the priority undertaken under the motto “Building Sustainability, Enhancing Commitments” to render the BSEC Organization a project oriented one.

BSEC should become, especially at a time of crisis, a meeting point where the countries of the region, with the participation of international actors and development mechanisms, set the path for actions that will give an added value to the energy, transport, tourism, culture and to numerous other comparative advantages of the region, for the benefit of all the people in and around it. Greece will spare no effort to contribute to that goal in the long run. 

Moreover, along with Romania and Bulgaria, our partners in both the EU and BSEC, we support new synergies in the wider Black Sea area stemming from BSEC-EU interaction, mainly those in the framework of the “Black Sea Synergy”. We will be glad to see BSEC participate in these initiatives, bringing its regional ownership and local expertise into the elaboration of concrete projects.  In this respect, we welcome the recently adopted European Resolution concerning the EU strategy for the Black Sea, and we encourage ICBSS to go on with its task, as coordinator to the Working Group for BSEC-EU Interaction.  

We also have a strong belief in the promotion of the two major projects of BSEC, namely, the Black Sea Ring Highway and the extension of the Motorways of the Sea in the Black Sea region, which, once accomplished, will greatly facilitate interaction and trade flows within the wider Black Sea region at all levels.

Finally, it is appropriate to underline the progress made under the Romanian Chairmanship in Office in the framework of the Working Group of Trade and Economic Development which resulted to a Joint Declaration of the Meeting of Ministers in charge of Economy of the BSEC Member States here in Bucharest on May 17, in the field of trade and investment cooperation. It is now time, under the upcoming Russian Chairmanship in Office, to enhance our efforts to coordinate initiatives of involving parties to develop projects in intra-regional trade and investment activities, as well as transfer of know-how on institution building.

Dear Colleagues,

I would like to make a special reference to the Related Bodies of our Organization. I firmly believe that their activity can be a key component of the day-to-day action in the region, by preparing, analyzing and providing input for the development objectives, cooperation and the involvement of public and private actors. To do this, they need to have a clear mandate for what is expected of them, of how each one’s work should be coordinated and complementary with the work of all others, and how, all together, they work in full unison with the Secretariat. It is our duty, at the political level, to make the operation of this mechanism, including the Parliamentary Assembly of BSEC, the BSEC Business Council, the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank, which has to be a real assistant to such development based on a set strategy, and the International Centre for Black Sea Studies, smooth, efficient, and economically viable.  

Let me take this opportunity, to express our appreciation for the work accomplished so far by the ICBSS, which should act as a think tank, and the BSEC Business Council, and reiterate the continuous support of Greece for enhancing cooperation between the BSEC Member States in their respective fields of activity.  I am also pleased to announce the completion of the internal procedures for the institutional restructuring of the Hellenic Committee to the BSEC Business Council, which will put an end to dysfunctions that we experienced in the past and contribute substantially to business cooperation among the BSEC Member States.

I wish to thank the Secretary General and PERMIS staff for their hard work and I believe that they must continue on the same path by creating more synergies with BSEC, since their proposals and initiatives give to the Organization the opportunity to move forward, in an effective way, by using all its resources.

I would like to express once again our Government’s gratitude to the Romanian Chairmanship for the successful organization of this 24th Meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs and for their warm hospitality.  I would like to conclude my speech by wishing full success to the next Russian Chairmanship-in-Office and to express our readiness to support and to provide assistance to its programme.

Dear Colleagues and Friends,

I look forward to meeting you in Russia this coming December. Thank you very much for your attention.