ABSTRACT
This chapter examines the way in which the European Union (EU) has tried to shape its periphery by sustaining subregional links between its Member States and neighbours which are not part of the Union. The latter is an overarching umbrella encompassing both bilateral and multilateral aspects of the partnership between the EU and the Southern Mediterranean countries. The role of region-builder which the EU adopts around the Black Sea is made explicit in a few policy documents, for instance in the European Parliament's resolution, which calls for gradually creating a feeling among the Black Sea countries of shared responsibility'. In the Northern Dimension as originally implemented, instruments were shaped at the EU level and applied at the subregional level, with subregional organisations acting as interfaces. On the influence of neo-functionalism and the Jean Monnet method upon EU regional initiatives, see the research conducted by Elisabeth Johansson-Nogus on the initiatives around the Mediterranean Sea and the Baltic Sea.
