ABSTRACT

This chapter examines connections between the EU and the various multilateral, intergovernmental, subregional groupings that operate in and around it, with particular emphasis on groupings that surfaced after the end of the Cold War. These include, for example, the Central European Initiative (CEI), Central European Free Trade Agreement (CEFTA), Visegrad Group (VG), Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC), the Council of Baltic Sea States (CBSS), Barents Euro-Arctic Council (BEAC) and others. 1 Most of these ‘children of the post-Cold war era’ (Bjurner 1999: 8) remain active today. The interactions between EU integration and sub-regional co-operation have mainly been due to the process and problems of EU enlargement and the main focus of this chapter will be on those post-1989 groupings which have had more direct involvement in the EU’s eastward expansion. Some of the questions to be considered are: What exactly is subregional co-operation and where has it manifested itself in Europe? What factors have determined the extent and type of interaction with the EU, particularly concerning subregional groupings’ roles in the pre-accession phase of the recent eastern enlargement of the EU? How did the 2004 enlargement of the EU impact on subregional co-operation in Europe?