Opinion Factsheet  

Macro-regional strategy for the Carpathian region

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Opinion Number: CDR 3425/2019
Rapporteur: ORTYL Władysław
Commission: COTER
Status: Adopted
Date: 04/12/2019
 
The Carpathians are a particularly important geopolitical region where strategic interests – political and economic – intersect.

This was even more the case after the 2004 EU enlargement, since the region now formed the eastern border of the whole Union.

Creating a specific strategy for this region would consolidate the strengths of the countries located in it and would complement existing initiatives such as the Carpathian Convention, the Carpathian Euroregion and the Interreg programmes.

The experiences of local and regional authorities, NGOs and academia, as well as consultations with people living in the Carpathian region, confirm the need for cooperation beyond administrative borders.

The opinion has the main objective to consolidate the arguments for adopting a macro-regional strategy for the Carpathian region, especially when being presented to the key decision-maker in this matter, namely the Council of the EU.
European Parliament Research Service Study on the Macro Regional Strategy for the Carpathian: https://www.europarl.europa.eu/thinktank/en/document.html?reference=EPRS_BRI%282019%29642257 (12 December 2019) - referene to the CoR opinion.
THE EUROPEAN COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS

- underlines that macro-regional Strategies improve the complementarity of various political strategies and programmes that are designated and implemented at different levels of governance. This pooling of jointly defined potential and coordination of actions is a significant added value at the European level;

- highlights the unique resources of the Carpathians, such as the natural wealth, unique multicultural heritage, human resources and common identity of mountain communities, all of which provide a great opportunity to work together towards more dynamic, sustainable and balanced socio-economic development in the area;

- considers that placing the Carpathian issue at the centre of a strategic document would highlight the problems of this area and make it possible to exploit the currently dormant and unique potential of the whole macro-region by focusing actions on the most important horizontal problems and challenges;

- reiterates and confirms the approval expressed many times of the initiative to develop a macro-regional strategy for the Carpathian region and sees it as a well-developed initiative undertaken at all levels of government;

- calls on the European Commission to support the initiative to create a macro-regional strategy for the Carpathian region as a further macro-regional strategy and the second one to address a European region with mountainous characteristics;

- considers that the macro-regional strategy instrument enables more effective use to be made of available financial resources as part of the European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) objective, by creating a viable system for co-financing and implementing actions supporting the regions of Carpathian countries.

Importance

High
Medium
Low
 

Meeting of the Interregional Group "Carpathians" of the CoR

This meeting summarized the recent developments and underlined the need in adopting the EU`s Macro-Regional Strategy for the Carpathians. Furthermore, local and regional authorities from the Carpathian region exchanged best practices in a variety of policy domains, including biodiversity management, financing and ecosystem services. Mr Zbigniew Rau, Minister of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland and Mr Tomasz Poręba, MEP also participated in the meeting and expressed their strong support for the Macro-Regional Strategy. The representatives of three Carpathian regions in Poland (Podkarpackie, Małopolska and Śląskie) also signed a joint declaration calling for the adoption of the Macro-Regional Strategy for the Carpathian region.

 
27 Nov
 

MEP Poręba requests follow-up to MRS for the Carpathian

MEP Thomasz Poręba issued a request to the European Commission asking about further steps to follow-up on the opinion of the CoR.

 
15 May
 

Meeting with Centru Region of Romania

In the meeting, both sides agreed that the Carpathian region represent high economic and cultural interest for the entire EU. Romania’s representatives emphasized the necessity for a sustainable development of the Carpathian region. Encouraged by other macro-regional strategies to deepen EU cohesion, both parties expressed optimism at a future of economic development and sustainable growth.

 
09 Mar
 

Meeting with the Ministry of Development of Communities and Territories in Ukraine

In the meeting with Dmitry Zhivitsky, Deputy Minister of Development of Communities and Territories in Ukraine, the rapporteur highlighted the excellent existing cooperation between the EU and Ukraine in border regions and that given the advanced state of discussion on the new Multiannual Framework (MFF) now is the right time to adopt the macro-regional strategy for the Carpathian region. Ukraine has delegated 74 million euros to revitalize its Carpathian Region. The MRS could be a tool used to coordinate future investments in the region and to deepen the relationship between Brussels and Kyiv.

 
09 Oct
 

Meeting with MEPs

The rapporteur met with Elżbieta Kruk, MEP and Krzysztof Jurgiel, MEP member and substitute member of the EP`s REGI committee. Both MEPs agreed with that for a dynamic and harmonious development of the Carpathian region a macro-regional strategy is a necessity. The MEPs assured of their support for the adoption of the new macro-regional strategy.

 
10 Sep
 

Meeting with representatives of the Finnish Presidency of the EU

In the meeting, the rapporteur underlined that the strategy for the Carpathian region could be equivalent to the successful Alpine strategy, which includes mountainous regions and addresses economic as well as social and environmental factors.

 
09 Sep
 

Meeting European Commission, DG REGIO

In the meeting, the rapporteur discussed with the Director of Directorate D (DG REGIO) that implementing the Carpathian strategy will require effective cooperation between all partners involved, i.e. all the Carpathian countries – Austria, Czechia, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Hungary, as well as Moldova, Serbia, Ukraine, and their local and regional authorities.

 
09 Sep
 

Meeting with representatives of the Permanent Representation of Member States to the EU

The rapporteur met with representatives of Czechia, Slovakia and Hungary. In the meeting, the rapporteur highlighted the added benefits of the macro-regional strategy for the development of the Central-European region. Member State`s representatives expressed their strong support for the adoption of the new macro-regional strategy and underlined the need adequate funding in the new Multiannual Financial Framework.

 
08 Sep