Report from the Commission to the European Parliament, the council, the European Economic ans Social Committee and the Committee of the Regions on the implementation of EU macro-regional strategies

Abstract

Globalisation has made countries more interdependent and problems must now be addressed across borders. This calls for a reflection on how macro-regions, as new functional areas, can contribute to improving the implementation of EU policies and programmes and to the achievement of territorial cohesion, as set out in Article 174 of the Treaty on the Functioning of theEuropean Union. The emergence of macro-regional strategies (MRS) has been driven by a number of EU countries and regions as a complement to traditional country policies on territorial management. They are designed to tackle common challenges e.g. innovation-driven growth, environment or climate change, using a bottom-up approach involving national, regional and local actors. Since the European Council endorsed the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) in 2009,1three further MRS have been developed: the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) in 2011,2the EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region (EUSAIR) in 2014 and the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP) in 2016.