The Three Seas Initiative (3SI) was launched in 2015 by Polish President Andrzej Duda and Croatian President Kolinda Grabar-Kitarović. The Initiative went through a significant process of evolution and institutionalization. Now the format includes Austria, Bulgaria, Croatia, the Czech Republic, Estonia, Hungary, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Slovenia. The idea behind the Initiative was to fill the gap between the Western and Central and Eastern Europe developed in the latter half of the 20th century and to ensure North-South connection alongside with the well-established East-West ties. The shortfall in investments in the infrastructure, energy and digital fields is estimated to have grown over the years. The founders of the initiative believe that eliminating this deficit would give an enormous boost to development in the region and make Europe stronger and more united as a whole. The expectations of the founding countries are not vain due to the high potential of the region which by area represents almost a third of the European Union and is home to 111 million people.
Sergiy Gerasymchuk Policy Brief
Sergiy Gerasymchuk is the Deputy Executive Director, Regional Initiatives and Neighborhood Program Director. Sergiy is involved in political studies since 2001 and has the experience of working for the Secretariat of the Parliament of Ukraine, scientific research institutions under the President of Ukraine and under Security and Defense Council of Ukraine. Besides, he was involved in the project implemented by national and international think tanks in Ukraine and in the area of Eastern Partnership. The areas of professional interest: political studies and political process in Ukraine, the activities of think tanks and civil society, regional security and frozen conflicts, transborder cooperation.
This policy brief is developed within the project “Romanian – Ukrainian Civil Society Forum for Dialogue and Cooperation. Third edition”, implemented by the Experts for Security and Global Affairs Association, Romania, in partnership with Strategic and Security Studies Group and Foreign Policy Council “Ukrainian PRISM ”, Ukraine, with the support of Black Sea Trust for Regional Cooperation, a project of the German Marshall Fund. The views expressed in this policy paper are those of the author and do not necessarily coincide with those of ESGA partners.