Publication

This paper sets out a typology of EU regionalism with its neighboring regions and examines where it will find a place in the EU's Black Sea Synergy. The author argues that while the Commission's initial proposals were highly eclectic, with various examples of "technical regionalism" combined with "security regionalism," there is already a diplomatic ballet in evidence between the EU and Russia, with the EU countering Russia's pursuit of its own "geopolitical regionalism." According to the author, a lack of agreement over future EU enlargement lets cooperation with the Black Sea region become "compensatory regionalism" rather than "transformative regionalism."