The final session of the Meeting of the Chairpersons of the Committees on Environment Protection and the Committees on State Administration and Local Authorities focused on contribution of EU institutions to the development of macro-regional strategies.

Johannes Hahn, European Commissioner for Regional Policy, thanked Lithuania for an extremely important initiative to discuss the matter on a parliamentary level. According to J. Hahn, this matter is of particular relevance in terms of the Multiannual Financial Framework 2014–2020, as “It was always a common understanding that the real implementation of the strategy can only start with the next financial perspective. Why? Because Member States have to take care in their programme planning about the different projects they envisage within the macro-regional strategy, so they have to plan in their national and regional operational programmes adequate allocation and adequate budget for the implementation of the different projects belonging to macro-regional strategies”.

The European Commissioner noted that each strategy is about very concrete projects: there are approximately 100 flagship projects that are being implemented under the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region; there are about 400 projects within the Strategy for the Danube Region; some have already been implemented while some are under discussion. The value of these 400 projects is approximately EUR 49 billion. The aim of such strategies is to promote economic growth, create jobs and contribute to further prosperity of people.

“Macro-regional strategies also aim at building up necessary capacities in the Member States, but also in the countries, which do not yet belong to the European Union. […] We should embrace, include all our neighbours wherever possible in our macro-regional strategies, give them the feeling of belonging to Europe, supporting them, helping them to build up their administrative capacities, to become familiar with European structures and with European standards”, Johannes Hahn said.

The European Commissioner is convinced that although the European Commission is always at the disposal of Member States to provide support in creating macro-regional strategies, as it has accumulated necessary knowledge and developed certain standards, strategies have to be created by Member States themselves.

Danuta Hübner, Chair of the Committee on Regional Development at the European Parliament, introduced the viewpoint of the European Parliament on macro-regional strategies. The EP is convinced that the first two macro-regional strategies have been successful and they can be a rich source of recommendations for the future: “In the future we could improve the governance of macro-regional strategies building on those cooperative approaches, between instruments, policies and people involved in the implementation of those strategies”.

According to D. Hübner, the Common Strategic Framework, which is place already as the guidelines for macro-regional strategies, will facilitate their establishment and implementation. General and European Territorial Cooperation Regulations are equally important as the documents describe how to strengthen macro-regional strategies, which, in their turn, are the basis of the Cohesion Policy. The aforementioned documents should also provide for aligning available financial instruments, identifying possibilities for transnational cooperation in the macro-regional context and reaching out to the deeply modified European groupings for territorial cooperation.

“We, in the European Parliament, would like to see strong involvement of public authorities and partners at local-regional level. […] But we believe the European Commission should play a crucial role in programming and implementing. […] And we would also like to see multi-regional strategies included in the agenda of different formations of the Council of Ministers. The chances of good results can grow only with the involvement of national Parliaments”, said the Chair of the EP Committee on Regional Development.

The Meeting of the Chairpersons of the Committees on Environment Protection and the Committees on State Administration and Local Authorities titled “Macro-regional Strategies: Development and Prospects” concluded its work by adopting Conclusions on the added value, environmental dimension and the future of macro-regional strategies”.

Saulė Eglė Trembo, Public Relations Unit, tel. +370 5 239 6203, e-mail: [email protected]