News
Top News / Branch News / Regional News

Estonian FM: The Black Sea must be internal water reservoir of EU

Estonia’s Foreign Minister Urmas Paet took part in the first meeting of foreign ministers of the EU member-states and Black Sea countries in Kiev, Ukraine, on February 14, REGNUM news agency reports. The meeting was aimed at developing the cooperation of the EU and Black Sea countries. They discussed joint activity in transportation, power engineering, environment protection as well as increasing security and stability in the region, Postimees newspaper (Estonia) reports.

Minister Paet compared the process of shaping-up the regional cooperation of the Baltic countries and start of the cooperation between countries of the Black Sea region emphasizing importance of exchanging opinions. “The cooperation in the Baltic region had great importance for Estonia on its way to the EU,” stressed Paet. According to him, it is necessary to move along this direction, in order to make the Black Sea one day an internal water reservoir of the European Union. The initiative of the cooperation of the Black Sea region countries, according to Paet, clearly shows increasing importance of the area for the EU. “With Bulgaria and Romania joining the union, EU’s borders stretched to the Black Sea coast,” said the Estonian minister. “Apart from the regional cooperation, this gives an opportunity of strengthening the EU relations with countries that pursue the good neighborhood policy,” believes Paet.

Later, Paet specified in an interview to Postimees that when speaking about the Black Sea, he drew parallels with the Baltic Sea that became mostly an EU internal water reservoir despite the fact that Russia’s frontiers are washed by it as well. “Nobody spoke seriously of Russia as an EU member; it does not aspire for the membership either,” said Paet adding that nobody forces anyone into the European Union.