Here is the first policy report published by the international «Commission on the Black Sea», a civil society initiative which has been established by the Bertelsmann Stiftung, the Black Sea Trust of the GMF, the International Centre for Black Sea Studies and the Turkish Tepav Institute. Panagiotis Gavras from the Black Sea Trade and Development Bank in Thessaloniki specifies within his paper the implications of the global crisis for the Black Sea region and formulates policy recommendations against the background of the current economic challenges.