Region-building as Trust-building

In this new article for the current edition of Southest European and Black Sea Studies (11:3), Fabrizio Tassinari explain why the EU's involvement in the Black Sea region has faltered.

Tassinari argues that half decade since the "Colour Revolutions" and the historic expansion of the European Union towards the former Soviet satellites in Eastern Europe, EU policy in the Black Sea area is in a bind. It is incapable of making significant leaps forward, i.e. by encouraging closer integration in Eastern and South-Eastern Europe. Moreover, it is not capable of seeing the consequences of the scarce appetite for reforms.

The article proposes an assessment of this state of affairs through the lens of trust. The interpretation is informed by a constructivist epistemology of power in international relations, which takes the notion of "region building" as key inspiration behind key EU policy of the past five years. The article concludes by arguing that, despite the continuing gloom hovering above the EU and its international role, region-building has proven a remarkable trust-building measure, but that any further development in EU policy has to come from a return to politics, and from a closer engagement with political actors both in the region and in Europe.

Further info: FTA@diis.dk