ABSTRACT
This chapter begins with an analysis of the important concepts of Europeanisation, democratisation and regionalisation along with an examination of how these apply to the European Union (EU) and the wider Black Sea region. This follows a discussion of the EUs policies towards the neighbourhood including the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), the Black Sea Synergy (BSS) and the Eastern Partnership (EaP) along with the EUs general security policy and relationship with NATO (North Atlantic Treaty Organization). The European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) initially just involved bilateral relations with non-candidate states in Eastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa, the neighbours in the wider Black Sea region being Ukraine, Moldova, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan. It argues that the Eastern Partnerships EuroNest and Civil Society Forum represent the top down and bottom-up requirements for a security community to begin to emerge even though they currently only involve a sub-section of the countries of the wider Black Sea region.
