"Macro-regions play a key role in strengthening the economic, social, and territorial cohesion of the European Union and its close neighbourhood by empowering cross-border areas to address specific and shared challenges collectively, through exchange and cooperation. The Mediterranean basin faces governance, socio-economic, climate, security, and environmental challenges which call for joint action. My opinion thus encourages the European Commission to support the development of a macro-regional strategy for the Mediterranean." Nikola Dobroslavić, President of Dubrovnik-Neretva Region made these remarks during a COTER Commission meeting in which his opinion on 'Towards a macro-regional strategy in the Mediterranean' was adopted.
Dobroslavić who served as the CoR Rapporteur on the Enlargement Package and who chairs the CoR Working Group on Western Balkans added that the Mediterranean area comprises several candidate and non-EU countries and stressed the importance of macro-regions in strengthening cooperation across EU borders to address common challenges.
Dobroslavić's opinion lists a number of challenges faced by the region, including climate change which call for the need to strengthen cohesion, increase the region's Europe-wide and global weight and its innovation potential and contribute to human well-being and preservation of the environment. In this regard local and regional authorities, can play a crucial role as they are strongly mobilised through initiatives and networks such as the Union for the Mediterranean (UfM), the Mediterranean Cooperation Alliance (MedCoopAlliance) and ARLEM (the Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly).
The opinion stresses that to provide meaningful solutions to shared challenges, the macro-regional strategy, must be designed at Mediterranean basin level and cover the three sub-basins: Western, Eastern and Adriatic-Ionian. It proposes that the governance of a future macro-regional strategy in the Mediterranean must fully reflect the principle of multi-level governance, involving European, national, regional, and local authorities.
The opinion considers that a Mediterranean macro-regional strategy must be based on an operational action plan to translate priorities into concrete action at Mediterranean level. It lists funding opportunities including the European Neighbourhood, Development and International Cooperation Instrument (NDICI), the European Territorial Cooperation programmes active in the Mediterranean (Next-MED, EUROMED, ADRION, MARITTIMO) as well as other programmes implemented directly by the European Commission, such as Horizon Europe, LIFE or Erasmus +, since they are open to the participation of third countries.
The opinion was adopted by the COTER Commission and is now scheduled to be adopted in the CoR plenary session in October, which will take place during the 20th European Week of Regions and Cities.