Editorial

The Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) was founded on June 25, 1992 in Istanbul, when the Declaration about Black Sea Economic Cooperation (BSEC) was signed by the Heads of States and Governments of Albania, Armenia, Azerbaijan, Bulgaria, Georgia, Greece, Moldova, Romania, Russia, Ukraine and Turkey. On June 25, 1998 in Yalta the Heads of States and Governments of BSEC Member States signed the Statutes of the Cooperation, having thus determined the strategy of the interaction of BSEC Member States.

One of the major objectives of the BSEC activity is the collaboration of research centers, higher education institutions, research organizations in the field of science and technology.

At the meetings of working groups, which are held with support from the Ministries of Science of BSEC Member States, the BSEC representatives discuss and offer decisions for the issues of scientific research development. As a result of the meetings, two of which were hosted by Kuban State University, the priorities of the scientific research have been developed, the principles of collaboration have been formulated. The collaboration resulted in the important achievements in the field of ecology and seismology.

Thus, in 2000 the Association of Seismic Protection of BSEC Member States was created, and its Statutes were approved at the governmental level.

Another example is the creation of international scientific organizations, such as the International Center for Black Sea Studies (Athens, Greece), the International Research Center in the Field of Seismology (Kuban State University, Krasnodar, Russia).

It is worth mentioning that scientists from BSEC Member States in higher education institutions, centers and organizations are closely cooperating with their colleagues from Europe, America, Asia, which demonstrates high level of scientific research.

The aims of the present Journal will be to develop science in the Black Sea region, to solve urgent scientific problems, and to encourage collaboration of scientists from all over the world.