Three Seas riddle

By Georgi Gotev

Sofia hosts a summit of the Three Seas Initiative (3SI) on Thursday and Friday (8-9 July) at a very inconvenient time – just before the snap general elections to be held in Bulgaria on Sunday. It’s not great when geopolitics interferes with politics.

The 3SI is viewed as a US-favoured initiative, although it was officially launched by Poland and Croatia in 2015.

It gathers 12 EU countries at the level of presidents, mostly from Eastern Europe (from north to south: Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Austria, Hungary, Slovenia, Croatia, Romania, and Bulgaria) which link the geographic space between the Baltic, the Adriatic, and the Black Sea.

And the Sofia summit is taking place at a time when the Black Sea is becoming an increasingly dangerous place.

The 3SI largely mirrors an earlier Chinese initiative, 16+1, aimed at promoting the Belt and Road. But now, with Joe Biden in Washington, 16+1 is no longer fashionable, and some members are already leaving.

The 3SI became pregnant with geopolitics in 2017, when the then US President Donald Trump attended a summit in Warsaw in an effort to patch up relations with the Eastern flank of European allies after a tense NATO gathering two months before.

A year later in Bucharest, Trump’s Secretary for Energy Rick Perry added to it the energy dimension and some financing, with the objective of reducing the energy dependence from Russia.

This time, Biden is expected to deliver a video address.

And there is some potential for the Three Seas to become Four Seas, because the Greek president is attending the summit in Sofia, for the first time, which could indicate a Hellenic interest to add the Aegean to the panoply.

In Bulgaria, geopolitics has always been divisive, with a large part of the electorate supporting the country’s Western orientation, and others calling for neutral positions or closer relations with Russia.

Ahead of such an important election as Sunday’s, expected to break the deadlock following the inconclusive April ballot that failed to produce a government coalition, geopolitics is disrupting the Bulgarian political scene.

Although, however, the geopolitical significance of 3SI is probably overblown.

A doctor examines a patient's eyes during a voluntary anti-blindness campaign, at a health center in Sana'a, Yemen, 06 July 2021. Nebras Health Society, a local agency for blindness prevention, has launched one of its voluntary anti-blindness campaigns in Sana'a to combat blindness and diseases that cause it, targeting more than 3,500 vulnerable people who are suffering from eye diseases, especially cataract disease. © epa-efe / Yahya Arhab

The Roundup

The French Association of Private Companies (AFEP) updated on Wednesday (7 July) the Ambition 4 Climate platform, which brings together the projects of 64 large companies with the aim of reaching carbon neutrality. EURACTIV France reports.

The EU’s agricultural subsidies should be restructured to achieve environment and climate goals, including a phase-out of direct payments and the reduction of livestock, according to a milestone report from the German commission on the future of agriculture. EURACTIV Germany reports.

As efforts to level the playing field between publishers and platforms gather steam around the world, collective bargaining approaches are also attracting support.

Extortion of companies through ransomware attacks has reached unprecedented levels worldwide, particularly during the pandemic, but Germany’s businesses and public institutions are not sufficiently prepared to address such threats that can put livelihoods and economies at risk. EURACTIV Germany reports.

The EU is facing a patchwork of travel rules across the bloc despite having a fully operational EU digital COVID certificate, MEPs have warned and called for harmonised measures instead of national restrictions.

A coalition of European electricity groups including EDF, Enel, Iberdrola, and Ørsted have called on the European Commission to impose a carbon tariff on hydrogen imports coming into Europe.

Unlike the steel and cement industry, the glass sector has a clear path towards decarbonising its processes: electrification. Yet renewable electricity is scarcer than the industry would like, raising concerns about its ability to meet EU climate goals.

Italy has promised to give battle after Croatia’s request to get EU protection for its sweet dessert wine, prošek, produced in the southern area of Dalmatia whose name resembles the iconic Italian bubbly wine prosecco.

The list of EU-approved sustainable fuel sources should be expanded to meet the higher targets for second-generation biofuels under the updated renewable energy directive, according to the advanced biofuels industry.

Look out for…

Commission Vice-President Vera Jourová delivers a speech at Hambach Democracy Dialogue 2021. 

Vice-President Dubravka Šuica speaks at conference ‘Smart Villages – a new concept for rural development’.

Commissioner Várhelyi visits Armenia.

Views are the author’s

Edited by Zoran Radosavljevic/Benjamin Fox