Democracy and good governance in the Black Sea Region

This policy report assesses the quality of the existing democratic institutions and identifies common structures in the political and societal development of the Black Sea region by comparing ten countries: Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Greece, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Georgia and Moldova, Russia and Ukraine. This report also provides details of issues such as:

• The political dynamics of the region: states have long democratic traditions
• Democracies under scrutiny: the heritage of communism
• The danger of losing control: nepotism and corruption.

The report's findings include:

• The region contains relatively stable democracies yet reforms have met with only limited success
  
• Bribery and corruption is a problem across the region and the judiciary is the area most affected
  
• The EU has made numerous bilateral and multilateral overtures to Black Sea countries, but has not shown a clear regional policy
  
• Control of the media, intimidation during electoral campaigns, inequality of media access and misuse of administrative resources have been a matter of concern in all post-communist states.

Recommendations include:

• Aid to states should be linked to democratic reforms, and combined with substantial assistance for institutional and administrative capacity building
  
• Judicial reforms and a stronger rule of law will be critical in stabilising the region’s political and economic systems and civil society groups should be given broad practical support
  
• A democratic government must ensure that there are an effective decentralised administration and accountable and transparent decision making processes
  
• The judiciary should be independent, impartial, efficient, and effective and honours its professionalism.