Institutionalization of Cooperation Between Inter-Governmental Organisations and NGOs: The BSEC Experience

The paper addresses the issue of the establishment of formal relations between the inter-governmental Organisation of the Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) and NGOs. After a brief presentation of the objectives, functions and structure of the BSEC, the paper undertakes to situate the phenomenon of cooperation between inter-governmental organizations and NGOs in the broader framework of the role of non-state entities in the international community. The presentation continues by focusing on the discussion in the BSEC concerning the establishment of criteria for institutionalising the Organisations's relations with NGOs. This paper moreover analyses the BSEC – NGOs cooperation as it has evolved in practice, with the various forms that such interaction can take, and it re flects on the lessons learned and the prospects of such cooperation.