Jordi Vaquer: "EU policies and strategies   have   mostly   either   weakened   rather   than   reinforced   sub-
regionalism, or captured it within EU institutionalism"

Jordi Vaquer, EU4SEAS Co-ordinator

The seminar presented the first main policy recommendations for the EU foreign policy towards three out of four the sea basins (Baltic, Black and Mediterranean).

The  EU   has   become   an   active   and   supportive   player   of   global multilateralism, in particular in the United Nations. However, according to Jordi Vaquer, Co-ordinator of EU4SEAS,  EU  general  commitment  to multilateralism  did  not  fare  well  when  confronted  with  the  reality  of  sub-
regionalism in Europe. 

While the picture that emerges from the rich and diverse material elaborated by  the  EU4SEAS  consortium  is  not  easy  to  resume  and  is  bound  to generalise,  it  can  be  nonetheless  stated  that,  with  all  due  caveats,  most
evidence points to a negative answer to the initial question: EU policies and strategies   have   mostly   either weakened   rather   than   reinforced   sub-egionalism, or captured it within EU institutionalism, significantly reducing ownership  by  non-EU  states. 

The  first  explanation  for  this  result  is  the overwhelming transformational capacity of enlargement compared to almost any  other  political strategy  at  play  in  Europe  in  the  last  two  decades. The promise  of  accession  transformed  the  countries  that  suffered  dictatorship under  communist  rule  beyond recognition  in  record  time,  thanks  to  the extraordinary attraction power of the EU.