Vladimir Lebedenko, secretary of the Russian delegation to the Council of Europe, said Russia would first like to see how the Black Sea Euroregion (BSE) initiative, signed by five Black Sea littoral countries on Sept. 26 in the Bulgarian province of Varna, will be implemented. "If this initiative is supported by all parties, we will support it, also. A lot of initiatives mean a lot of programs and projects, but they do not really mean progress in the citizens' lives," he told Today's Zaman following a roundtable discussion titled "The Black Sea between co-operation and conflict" on Oct. 8 in Brussels as part of the OPEN DAYS 2008 European Week of Regions and Cities.

The BSE is the newest cross-border economic and social cooperation organization established under the auspices of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe. More than 140 officials from local authorities and communities in Armenia, Bulgaria, Georgia, Moldova and Romania attended the fourth International Conference of the Black Sea Euroregion in Varna and launched the BSE last month. It is open to other regional and local entities from Turkey, Russia, Ukraine, Azerbaijan, Greece, Albania and Serbia.

Yavuz Mildon, president of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, expressed hope that Russia would remain interested in the BSE initiative and may even be warmer to joining it than before. "We've seen that the Russian representative expressed a warmer view toward the Black Sea initiative. This is a good sign," he told Today's Zaman.

Mildon said former Norwegian Ambassador Torbjørn Frøysnes spoke at the panel about how the cooperation among the countries around the Barents Sea came about and that this could set an example for the Black Sea countries.

Frøysnes had said the Barents Sea cooperation initiative started in the same way, with the participation of local communities in the region. He said the involvement of local and regional communities is "enormously important in order to create good conditions for understanding and further cooperation." He added that the initiative taken by the Euroregion is timely, referring to August's brief war between Georgia and Russia. "It is important that people living in the spot can have a say on how things should go," Frøysnes said.

Even though their national governments may not yet be signatories to the BSE, local communities around the Black Sea can join the initiative at any time with their governments' support, Mildon added. Some provinces, such as Turkey's Samsun and Ukraine's Odessa, have been added as "contact points" in the BSE's final statutes.

Mildon also stressed that countries not involved in the BSE yet tend to see the initiative along the same lines as other Black Sea initiatives, such as the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) inter-governmental organization and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (PABSEC), which is an inter-parliamentary platform. He said there has not been an inter-territorial platform like the BSE for facilitating interregional and inter-municipal cooperation in the region.

"Turkey should not be reluctant. It should be a leading country, persuading others to join the new initiative," said Mildon, an active regional leader both in Turkey and Europe who was elected by unanimous vote at the end of May as the president of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe.

Committee of the Regions supports Cyprus peace process

Participating in the panel on the Black Sea cooperation, Luc Van den Brande, president of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), which represents elected leaders of the EU's regions and cities, said local Turkish and Greek representatives from Lefkoşa (Nicosia), the capital of the divided island of Cyprus, are concrete examples of how communities can take responsibility for contributing to dialogue, even if conflict persists.

He referred to the reopening in April of the famous Ledra Street crossing point in the heart of Nicosia, 44 years after it was closed. "In the Committee of the Regions, I opened Ledra Street with local representatives from Nicosia," he said. "We are going for a Europe without dividing lines."

On Oct. 7 the CoR renamed its fifth-floor atrium "Open Ledra Street." The corridor is lined with coffee tables and chairs. Turkish Cypriot representative Münür Doratlı, Greek Cypriot representative Eleni Mavrou, the European Parliament's president, Hans-Gert Pottering, Van den Brande and Commissioner Danuta Huber were present at the inaugural ceremony.

In addition, members of the CoR invited -- for the first time ever in a European institution -- representatives from Nicosia's Greek Cypriot and Turkish Cypriot communities to participate together in its 76th plenary session on Oct. 8.

Tolga Cağakan, a representative of the Turkish Cypriot community of Nicosia, thanked CoR "for giving voice to our city and our community" and said, "Today we can dream of a better future for Nicosia, working together with our brothers and sisters in the Greek Cypriot community."

Todays Zaman