Macro-Regional Strategies in the European Union: Challenges and Opportunities

The paper presents in terms of European macro-regional strategies implemented or underimplementation, the role of these strategies in the broader context of the 2020 Strategy and the EUpolicy framework. New, powerful, innovative and potential instrument for promoting Europeanintegration and territorial cooperation, the macro-regional strategies have been designed in order tomobilize new projects and initiatives and to provide a coordinated response to issues which are betterdealt with together than apart, creating a sense of shared responsibility. The research seeks to clarify,using survey and observation, the main concepts used in defining macro-regional strategies. Lessonslearned from experiments already established - the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea and Danube Region- are analyzed in the paper compared to the new macro-regional strategies in order to identify therelevant issues of strategic point of view, offering real added value, enabling an effective andcoherent governance of macro-regions and Europe in full

Comparative study on the governance structure and energy policies in EU macro-regional strategies. CEPS Research Report No. 2019/02, July 2019

Macro-regional strategies (MRS) are EU initiatives to create multi-country coordination structures to strengthen joint collaboration on common challenges by participating countries and regional authorities. While their establishment was top down, these initiatives and their work plans are expected to be driven increasingly by a more bottom-up approach. To understand some of these challenges, this study focuses on the similarities and differences in the governance structures of the macro-strategies and, more specifically, their contribution to the implementation of the Energy Union, while keeping an eye on the potential role that these initiatives might have after 2020. Among its findings, this study reveals that the application of the new MRS concept to the already existing advanced set of funding policies by the EU is not fully well-suited. Yet, the MRS could play an important role in the implementation of the Energy Union. Macro-regional strategies being highly heterogeneous, local authorities need to engage more actively with their government to ensure the MRS approach is given the right relevance in the national strategies

Macro-regions: regional integration within and beyond the EU

This paper focuses on three European macro-regions: the Baltic Sea Region (BSR), the –revamped- Benelux, and the Danube Region (DR). It makes a comparative analysis of these three schemes of regional integration within (and in some cases beyond) the EU. The paper discusses literature on differentiated integration as well as literature on (old and new) regionalism and territorial governance. It develops an analytical framework which involves various aspects of differentiation/regionalization: time, matter, drivers for differentiation and /or regionalization, membership, institutions, decision-making, and modes of governance. Through desk-research (policy documents, websites, and earlier research) the framework is applied to the three macro-regions at hand. The analysis leads to the conclusion that the macro-regional strategies for the BSR and DR are almost identical, that the Benelux is different from the other two macro-regions, but that there also is some convergence, with the Benelux becoming more open and process-oriented, and the BSR and DR being effectively institutionalized by the EU. Rather than being a threat to European integration, the macro-regional strategies of the EU have essentially strengthened its position

Macro-Regional Strategies – Experiment for the Renewal of Economic Policy of the European Union

The EU’s economic policy is based on political experiment and innovation. We are placing the macro-regional strategies into this learning procedure and positioning them compared to the economic policy toolkit of the EU. After analysing and compar-ing these new concepts (Baltic Sea, Danube and other potential macro-regional strategies) we classify the EU’s economic policy in terms of implementation and coordination. Accordingly, macro-regional strategies are cooperative, have soft coordination and their territorial-functional focuses reflect increasing differentiation and integration. In our view, potentially feasible, more tightened fiscal and sectoral coordination through macro-regions can give a new impulse to the cooperation on EU level and improve EU’s com-petitiveness. Still, limited EU resources, insufficiently deep integration and softer coordination can all enhance the fragmentation further and can notably limit the room for manoeuvring of the EU in tackling external, internal challenges

RIS3 in macro-regional strategies: tools to design and monitor integrated territorial development paths

This paper highlights the importance of combining quantitative and qualitative analyses . It combines multidimensional analysis of the characteristics of EU macro-regions with a comparative, qualitative perspective on priorities outlined in regional innovation strategies. It shows that bottom-up strategies for regions can support integrated approaches, and that the RIS3 database in particular can help with the successful design and implementation of policie

Understanding Macro-Regional Strategies The EUSDR and Existing Forms of Governance and Cooperation in the

Masteroppgave offentlig politikk og ledelse- Universitetet i Agder, 2014Macro-Regional Strategies (MRSs) revel in noticeable attention in the debate on EU politics. MRSs for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) and the Danube Region (EUSDR) were launched in 2009 and 2011, respectively. MRSs are anticipated to be a suitable tool to encounter economic, social and environmental challenges within its regions. For Brussels, this new approach represents a more efficient instrument for the utilization of existing resources. This thesis focuses on the EUSDR by examining its impact on existing modes of governance and cooperation in the Danube Region. Drawing on a multi-level-governance approach, this research is premised on the assumption that the EUSDR will elicit significant mobilization among subnational authorities, non-governmental actors and participating non-EU members. The ambition is to identify the degree of mobilization along the polity, policy, and the politics level of analysis. The research is divided in two main parts. The first one is descriptive and provides the necessary theoretical, methodological, and contextual background, whereas the second part attempts to determine the degree of mobilization among relevant actors, Additionally, it aspires to identify the mechanisms behind this form of macro- regional cooperation. The study concludes that the EUSDR has a differentiated impact on existing governance arrangements, varying across actors and policy sectors. The degree of mobilization is rated as moderate, and activities are predominantly present at the policy level of analysis. Based on the empirical observations and the following discussion, it appears reasonable to suggest that the current governance arrangements are favourable for high-performing actors with sufficient resources. Furthermore, the EUSDR clearly entails a top-down character in its governance structure, through which it places the Commission in a position to extend their role from coordinating the strategy to operating it

The macro-regional strategies of the European Union: Between European territorial cooperation and multi-level governance

The Editorial Team notifies the readers that the article “The Macro-Regional Strategies of the European Union: Between European Territorial Cooperation and Multi-Level Governance“ of author Dimitris Liakopoulos, published in  Acta Universitatis Danubius. Relationes Internationales, Vol. 11, No. 2 on December 2018, has been retracted. In March 2020, The Editorial Team received a claim of plagiarism, which proved to be true.In the view of The Editorial Team, the article is unacceptable for publication and therefore retracted.The retracted article remains online to maintain the scholarly record, but it is digitally watermarked on each page as “Retracted”.The Editorial Tea

Európai makroregionális stratégiák közlekedéslogisztikai célkitűzései

The initiative of the European macro-regional strategies is a new dimension of the European regional cooperations, aiming to strenghten the European regional cohesion. The principle of the macro-regional control is to take down the responsibility to the lowest possibel level in order to reach better coordination and more efficient and more aligned measures. One of the thematic pillars of the macro-regional strategies is the increase of the accessibility and the attractiveness, which highlights the importance of the transport and the logistics. The experiences of the preparation of the Baltic Sea strategy and the European Danube regional strategy indicate that important new transport corridors appeared in the macro-regions and new regional cooperations emerge

ULOGA MAKROREGIONALNIH STRATEGIJA EUROPSKE UNIJE – IZMEĐU ČVRSTE OBVEZE ZEMALJA SUDIONICA I AD HOC PRISTUPA

The European Union macro-regional strategies represent a policy framework that aims to enable EU Member States and third countries sharing common interests to better coordinate their potentials in order to make the best possible use of available opportunities. This paper looks into the specificities of four EU macro-regional strategies covering 19 European Union Member States and nine non-EU countries. Given the challenging situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it also considers the future perspectives of EU macro-regional strategies as well as their adaptability to new circumstances. More specifically, it focuses on intergovernmental initiatives and their implementation, underlying the importance of the application of the principle of subsidiarity. In addition, the aim of the paper is to provide a critical overview of the subject by highlighting two pivotal elements. First, it assesses whether the EU macro-regional strategies could be genuinely successful, given the fact that they do not have their separate allocation but use the existing funding instead. Second, it explores the ability of the EU macro-regional strategies to bridge wider EU-level policies on the one hand and local policies on the other. Finally, the idea of the paper is to offer an overview of the state of affairs when macro-regions are concerned.Makroregionalne strategije Europske unije okvir su politike koji ima za cilj omogućiti državama članicama EU-a i trećim zemljama, koje dijele zajedničke interese, da bolje koordiniraju svoje potencijale kako bi na najbolji način iskoristile dostupne mogućnosti. Ovaj rad razmatra specifičnosti četiriju makroregionalnih strategija EU-a koje pokrivaju 19 država članica i devet zemalja koje nisu članice EU-a. S obzirom na izazovnu situaciju uzrokovanu pandemijom bolesti COVID-19, razmatraju se i buduće perspektive makroregionalnih strategija EU-a kao i njihova prilagodljivost novim okolnostima. Točnije, usredotočuje se na međuvladine inicijative i njihovu provedbu, što je temelj primjene načela supsidijarnosti. Uz to, cilj je rada dati kritički presjek teme naglašavajući dva ključna elementa. Prvo, procjenjuje se mogu li makroregionalne strategije EU-a biti istinski uspješne s obzirom na to da nemaju zasebnu alokaciju sredstava, već koriste postojeća sredstva. Drugo, istražuje se sposobnost makroregionalnih strategija EU-a da premoste razlike između politika na razini EU-a s jedne strane i lokalnih politika s druge. Ideja je rada ponuditi pregled aktualnosti u kontekstu makroregionalnih strategija EU-a