Contracting Parties

Bulgaria, Georgia, Romania, Russian Federation, Republic of Turkey, Ukraine

Main objectives

The Permanent Secretariat of the Black Sea Commission (BSC PS) was established in 2000 to assist the Black Sea Commission on implementation of provisions of the Convention and the Black Sea Strategic Action Plan (BS SAP). The BSC PS is located in Istanbul (Republic of Turkey). The areas of concern of the Black Sea Commission are, inter alia, to monitor and assess pollution, control pollution from land-based sources, ensure conservation of biological diversity, address environmental safety aspects of shipping, address environmental aspects of management of fisheries and other marine living resources and promote integrated coastal zone management and maritime policy. Being an executive body of BSC, the BSC PS coordinates activities of the Advisory Groups to the Black Sea Commission, which are its main source of expertise, information and support.

Last holistic assessment of the status of the Regional Sea performed (QSR)

Highlights

Black Sea Commission concluded MoUs with UNEP/MAP (Barcelona Convention); GFCM (FAO); ACCOBAMS Agreement and IMO. It has more than nine observers, collaborates with UNEP and helps to promote relevant projects and initiatives in the Black Sea region, such as FP6 Upgrade BS-SCENE (Upgrade Black Sea Scientific Network), in 2008-2011, FP7 CREAM (Coordinated Research in support to application of Ecosystem Approach to Fisheries and management advice in the Mediterranean and Black Seas in 2011-2013, EMODNet (European Marine Observation and Data Network) having different components of interest to the Black Sea scientific community (chemistry, physics, biology, etc.) from 2008 and ongoing still, FP7 ODEMM (Options for Delivering Ecosystem-Based Marine Management) in 2010-2013, FP7 PEGASO (People for Ecosystem Based Governance in Assessing Sustainable Development of Ocean and Coast) in 2010-2013), FP7 PERSEUS (Policy-oriented marine Environmental Research for the Southern EUropean Seas) in 2012-2015, FP7 CoCoNET (Towards Coast to Coast NETwork of marine protected areas (from the shore to high and deep sea), coupled with sea-based wind energy potential) in 2012-2015, DG-ENV IRIS-SES (Integrated Regional monitoring Implementation Strategy in the South-European Seas) in 2013-2015, DG-ENV MISIS (MSFD Guiding Improvements in the Black Sea Integrated Monitoring System) in 2012-2014. Currently other similar projects started in 2018, such as: BS-CBC ANEMONE (Assessing the vulnerability of the Black Sea marine ecosystem to human pressures) in 2018-2021, H2020 COASTAL (Collaborative and sea integration platform) in 2018-2022.