Riparian Countries: Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russian Federation, Turkey, Ukraine.

Project Beneficiary Countries: Georgia, Ukraine

The Black Sea is one of the most vulnerable regional seas in the world given its limited exchange of water with the open oceans and the large area of continental Europe from which it receives the drainage. The four strongly interlinked priority trans-boundary problems of the Black Sea are eutrophication – nutrient enrichment, changes in marine living resources, chemical pollution (including oil), and biodiversity/habitat changes, including alien species introduction – as well as the underlying root causes like industrial activities, agriculture, domestic wastewater, sea transport (oil spills, ballast water), and coastal zone degradation (urbanisation, tourism).

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The Convention on the Protection of the Black Sea against Pollution (Bucharest Convention) addresses these problems through enhanced cooperation among its signatories. The development/improvement of a monitoring network is considered to be a management target of high priority. Further coordination in policies and legislation between the Black Sea countries is also of common interest to the EU’s partners countries – being also members of the Commission on the Protection of the Black Sea Against Pollution (Black Sea Commission – BSC) – in so far it influences their own ability to implement EU legislation and policies, notably the EU Water Framework Directive (WFD) and the EU Marine Strategy Framework Directive (MSFD).