Squaring the Circle: The EU's Operational Impact in the Black Sea Region

The aim of this paper is to explain the flux in the European Union (EU) policies towards the Black Sea region with a particular comparative focus on the impact of the EU's operations in the South Caucasus and the EU Border Assistance Mission (EUBAM) in Moldova. This paper adopts the prospect and process of EU enlargement towards Central and Eastern Europe as a breakthrough in the EU's deeper rapprochement with the Black Sea region. By assuming that the EU has a variety of instruments at its disposal for crisis management, this paper suggests that the EU is relatively more powerful with its framework initiatives in dealing with the problems of the region at the grass-roots level, more so than as a security actor assuming direct roles including the operative side of the Common Security and Defence Policy in the resolution of the regional conflicts in Abkhazia, South Ossetia, Nagorno-Karabakh and Transnistria. More specifically, this paper argues to what extent the three-and-a-half operations in the Black Sea are successful in presenting effective solutions to the region's conflictual situations.