THE ROLE AND STRATEGIC IMPORTANCE OF BALKAN COUNTRIES IN CASPIAN BASIN`S ENERGY DIPLOMACY

Abstract

Being one of the important dynamics of countries' socio-economic development "energy" plays an important role for the countries with scarce natural resources which imports them from abroad. It is obvious that the more output in GDP meansthe more energy consumption. In fact, having higher income per-capita leads tohigher energy consumption per-capita in world economy.It is equally important for the countries besides their internal consumption also todeliver the rest of their resources to the global market. "Strategic Transportation Pipes" gives extra importance in terms of security and economic sustainability forthe relative partners of this market. A small instability on these transport lines willcause depression effect for the economies and at same time will lead other kind ofsocio-economic problems such as recession, unemployment and scarcity.In this regard, Europe Union very considered for the bilaterial cooperation withBalkan countries, because of their geografic position as a gateway to the main energy basis in south-east countries. Having secured relations with these countries means sustainble energy flow to EU countries.The importance of Balkan countries in regard of strategic and geographical positioning to pass through the Caspian Energy resouces to EU has been investigated in this study. An important issue has been stressed in this article arethe energy resource and transportation security issues in energy politics and the stability of energy prices and the transportation of energy to markets in a requested quantity are also in the centre of attention.