While in the early 1990’s, Romania seemed far away from United Europe’s capital, today it is just one step away from making a historic dream come true, one that will modernize the country, i.e. Romania’s EU membership. Four years ago, Romania joined NATO, which was, for the first time in its history, a solid guarantee of security from the Western allies.

On January the 1st 2007, Romania’s neighbors will become Europe’s direct neighbors, at least until a future enlargement. European enlargement has been a remarkable success which has proved its viability by ensuring the European continent’s stability and also by bringing about prosperity for the citizens of the Union. The debate on the future of Europe is becoming ever more wary in terms of the approaches put forward. Romania, which is one of the beneficiaries of the European and Euro-Atlantic projects, cannot be uninvolved. We are in favor of pursuing enlargement towards areas in our Eastern neighborhood, areas which have shared our troubled history of the last half of the century: the Western Balkans, the Republic of Moldova, and the Black Sea riparian countries.

Moreover, at the outset of my term of office as president of Romania, I stated that, after January the 1st 2007, the Eastern neighborhood has to become Romania’s foreign policy priority.

At the meetings I have had with Western leaders, I have always emphasized the need to make the issue of the Black Sea region more conspicuous on the European and Euro-Atlantic agendas. The Black Sea needs to become the place from which Western democratic values spread towards the Eastern neighborhood: the Republic of Moldova, Ukraine, Belarus, the Caucasus and Central Asia. The Black Sea should not become a fault line, despite some scholarly approaches saying otherwise. The states in the region need to define their own priorities and their own agenda of issues.

Furthermore, the issues we are facing – stemming from the Black Sea region – affect the entire European and Euro-Atlantic areas, not only Romania. Let us not forget that 80% of drugs on the London drug market come from the Black Sea region and that the European black market of human beings also revolves around the Black Sea region.

The launch of the Black Sea Forum for Dialogue and Partnership is a first step towards finding a solution to the issues we are facing. The first event of the Forum will be a Summit scheduled to be held in Bucharest in two weeks time.The Forum agenda is based on the conviction that all our problems can be solved through dialogue, in flexible formats opened to all who wish to bring their contribution. The Wider Black Sea Region has to draw up its own agenda of issues, in keeping with the principle of regional ownership and to be able to rank the issues in terms of priorities: energy, economic development, democratization, environment protection, infrastructure, so, mostly, in terms of soft security.

We hope that the Forum will contribute to the revival of regional cooperation, by opening communication channels between the various initiatives in the region and by covering those niches which are not yet fully used, such as cultural diversity, direct contact between local authorities, civil society and the academic environment, environmental security and humanitarian aid.

The Forum is also an opportunity to forge partnerships between the academic and political sector as well as between the public and private sector with a view to upholding our interests related to the Wider Black Sea Region. We hope that together, leaders and government representatives of countries bordering the Black Sea, as well as representatives of civil society, we can take the first steps towards identifying priorities and finding appropriate solutions to the issues we are facing. Join us!