For the first time this year, the EU MRS Week is turning into the EU Macro-regional and Sea Basin Strategies Days, co-organised by DG REGIO and DG MARE!
On 12 and 13 June 2024, at THE EGG, the seven strategies (Alpine, Danube, Adriatic-Ionian, Baltic Sea, Atlantic, Western Mediterranean and Black Sea) will encounter each other’s during a two-day event in Brussels. The event will serve as a communication and networking platform, enhancing coordination among participating countries, pillars coordinators, stakeholders, presidencies and representatives of the EU institutions.
Following the slogan #Strategies4cooperation, the event will focus on different thematic, all of them relevant to the seven strategies, with the main aim of exchanging knowledge, creating new synergies and reinforcing old ones.
Five parallel interactive workshops will take place during the afternoon of the first day, focusing on the following themes: Enlargement, Climate Change, Clusters and Innovation, Embedding and Civil Societies engagement.
Opening and closing of the event will see the participation of Elisa Ferreira, Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, Themis Christophidou, Director General for DG REGIO, and Charlina Vitcheva, Director General for DG MARE.
Find more information about the different sessions below:
During this workshop, participants will analyse how regional cooperation under the framework of the Sea Basin and Macro Regional Strategies can contribute to the policy objectives towards a fully carbon neutral EU by 2050, to tackle coastal resilience and to risk management. Equally, the discussions will address the state of the art on data collection and analysis at regional level and identify homogeneous indicators on climate change impacts.
The workshop will facilitate exchanges of views and explore the intersection of innovation, clusters, and smart specialization through cooperation within EU macro-regional and sea basin strategies. Discussions will centre around 3 topics: 1. Sustainable food from land and sea, 2. Transport and Connectivity and 3. Sustainable Tourism and Culture.
Macro-Regional and Sea Basin Strategies do not have their own dedicated funding sources. That is why it is important to mobilise existing EU funding instruments. The workshop will explore ways in which the strategies can be embedded in other funding sources, cohesion programmes, including Interreg, directly managed funds (Horizon Europe, Life, Erasmus etc.), regional, national, private funding and innovative finance as well as other sources.
EU Macro-Regional and Sea Basin Strategies contribute significantly to cooperation between EU Member States and candidate countries. They are unique in the sense that all participating countries cooperate on an equal footing. The workshop will identify ways in which macro-regional and sea basin strategies can support and accelerate the EU enlargement process by sharing ideas and collecting suggestions from regional stakeholders.
This workshop intends to build on the efforts made during 2023 across the four macro-regional strategies to promote a systematic involvement and participation of citizens, civil society organisations, local communities and other interested partners in EU Macro-Regional and Sea Basin Strategies. It will provide an opportunity to reflect on good practices for civil society involvement and agree on a set of recommendations for concrete actions for MRS/SBS.
Get to know your DG, create new links and exchange! This will be a moment of matchmaking, exchanging and networking among participants and colleagues from different DGs. From REGIO, to ENER, to RTD, MARE...and many more! Let us know who you would like to exchange with, and we will do our best to take the Commission to THE EGG.
As part of the Youth4cooperation initiative launched by DG REGIO, this plenary session will be developed and delivered by and for young people. The plenary will focus on the meaning of cooperation in the challenging times we are facing; the way cooperation, at regional and national level, can help sustain European values. The young people present will have the opportunity to reflect, and make the audience reflect, on topics such as democracy, enlargement, current conflicts, and climate crises.
The plenary intends to explore present and future synergies among the 4 macro-regional and 3 sea-basin strategies that exist today. A panel discussion among Moray Gilland, Head of Unit in DG REGIO, Christos Economou, Head of Unit in DG MARE, and two presidencies from the Macro-regional and Sea-basin strategies will explore cooperations pathways among the different strategies, taking into account the present and future needs of all the regions involved.
