Bulgaria Takes Over BSEC Chairmanship-in-Office

BAKU, October 23 (BTA). Bulgaria assumed the rotating Chairmanship-in-Office of the Organization of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) from Azerbaijan at a formal ceremony after the 21st Meeting of the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs of the BSEC Member States in Baku on Thursday, the Bulgarian Foreign Ministry said in a press release.

Taking part in the Meeting was Bulgarian Foreign Minister Rumiana Jeleva.

In her statement, Dr Jeleva stressed the priorities of the Bulgarian Chairmanship-in-Office (November 1, 2009 - May 31, 2010). She noted that the motto of the Chairmanship, "Bridging Sea, Energizing Cooperation, nutshells these priorities.

Dr Jeleva thanked the BSEC Member States for reaching consensus on a Bulgarian proposal to switch to two rotations of the chairmanship within a calendar year, which was endorsed by the Council of Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Baku. She said that Bulgaria will continue to place on the BSEC agenda organizational issues which, according to this country, impede its development as a genuine regional organization. The chief Bulgarian diplomat noted the need to reassess the functioning of the BSEC working groups, to steer the Organization to pragmatic action and above all to implementation of projects of regionwide and subregional relevance. Dr Jeleva expressly mentioned such areas of cooperation as energy, tourism, science and technology, and introducing "soft" security measures (combating organized crime, illegal trafficking in drugs and arms, terrorism, corruption and money laundering).

The Bulgarian Foreign Minister stressed the need of focussing the attention of the European Union on the Black Sea region in three key aspects: accelerating the process of launching sectoral partnerships within the framework of the EU Black Sea Synergy Programme; facilitating a more effective participation of the European Commission and the seven EU Member States which have observer status with BSEC (Austria, Germany, Italy, Poland,

France, Slovakia and the Czech Republic); ongoing EU-BSEC dialogue and resuming the regular working meetings in Brussels in this format.

Concluding her remarks, Dr Jeleva stressed the importance of contacts between local authorities in the Black Sea region for the creation of a climate of confidence and cooperation.