Cooperation among the Black Sea region countries will promote Ukraine's integration with the EU and carrying out of reforms in the country that are necessary for achieving European standards, participants in a discussion "Construction of Democracy and Market Economy in Black Sea Region" arrived at such an opinion at a plenary meeting of the Fifth Annual Summit of the Yalta European Strategy (YES).
Senior Advisor of the European Union Political Council Pirkka Tappiola noted that the European Union has been examining the Black Sea region and accentuates on cooperation with the countries located in this part of Europe. "There is a positive dynamics here and much success. Ukraine carried out free democratic elections twice. Also, its WTO accession should be noted. You have an economic growth, but it is necessary to review reforms now. Today we see that there are definite weak sides in distribution of authorities between the power branches".
Secretary of the Ukrainian National Security and Defense Council Rayisa Bohatyriova also thinks that cooperation in the Black Sea region is one of priorities for Ukraine. "The Black Sea region is very important. In particular, because namely in this region there are some countries of the former USSR wishing to have its own history and confirm for themselves a choice of that security space, which was declared not long ago". The NSDC Secretary noted that large energy capacities and capacities of energy transportation from Asia to Europe and from Europe to Asia are concentrated in this region.
According A. Razumkov Center expert Valeriy Chalyi, a problem of the Black Sea region is in the fact that Russia should not be dominating here. In his opinion, Ukraine may be a mediator in this issue. "We can speak about creation of the regional identity. In addition, the region's economic potential provides a good perspective for its development".
