Progress in the macro-regions - 4th report from the European Commission

On 9 December 2022, the European Commission published its biennial report on the implementation of EU macro-regional strategies. In doing so, the European Commission provides an overview of achievements in the four macro-regional strategies. Prior, the European Commission collected inputs from national and thematic coordinators and further stakeholders to assess the state of play. In total, the Commission report elaborates on eight topics:

Macro-Regional Strategies’ policies in view of the Green Deal and Digital Transition
Social change and the war in Ukraine
Cohesion and place-based approach
Partnerships with civil society and youth
Governance and administrative capacities in the Macro-Regional Strategies
Better access to Funding
Monitoring and Evaluation
Communication

The full report is accessible here.

Good Practices from Priority Area 10 “Institutional Capacity”

While the report provides an overview of the progress in territorial development across all four macro-regions, it illustrates achievements with good practices.

Thereby, the European Commission considered a number of activities carried out in the realm of Priority Area 10 “Institutional Capacity” as good practices. In particular, the report recognised activities of Priority Area 10 “Institutional Capacity” in the areas of social change and war in Ukraine, partnerships with civil society and youth, as well as better access to funding.

Civil Society Networks for quick humanitarian aid in Ukraine

Regarding the macro-regional strategies’ contribution to providing humanitarian aid to Ukraine, the Commission report highlighted the coordinating initiatives of civil society networks operating in Ukraine, but also beyond. The Centre for Regional Development in Odessa worked ceaselessly with their Ukrainian network on coordinating and distributing humanitarian aid. In doing so, the Centre for Regional Development not only worked within Ukraine, but also coordinated with partners across the Danube Region. Likewise, the network of civil society organisations (Netzwerk Zivilgesellschaft) in Baden-Württemberg instantly started with the coordination of support from small non-governmental organisations. The network previously existed and closely cooperated with the States Ministry in Baden-Württemberg. Building on the previous close cooperation, the network of civil society organistions organised deliveries of humanitarian aid and coordinated donations in accordance with local needs in Ukraine.

Partnership with civil society organisations and youth

In the area of partnerships and cooperation with stakeholders, the European Commission highlighted the partnerships with the Danube Civil Society Forum and the Danube Local Actors Platform. Furthermore, the Danube Participation Day illustrated a good practice example on how to realise coopertion and dialogue between representatives from the strategies’ governance and civil society organisations.

With regards to youth involvement, the European Commission mentioned the Young Bled Strategic Forum tat provides a platform for discussion with young leaders. Moreover, the Young Bled Strategic Forum facilitates the exchange between young people and politicians as well as other opinion makers.

Better access to funding

With the new funding period, the coordination or – so-called embedding – of strategic objectives in funding programmes became a omnipresent topic. All four macro-regional strategies initiated closer cooperation between the strategies and funding programmes. One of the highlighted Managing Authorities network was the network of Managing Authorities of the European Social Fund+ in the Danube Region. The ESF+ Network is one of the oldest networks managed by Priority Area 9 “People and Skills” and Priority Area 10 “Institutional Cooperation” in close cooperation with the Managing Authorities of the ESF+ in the Danube Region. The network aims at closer coordination of projects along agreed topics and capacity building among programmes and the strategy.

Major take aways from the EC Report: powerful tool for development and trust-building, but there is room for improvement

The conclusions of the report have an overall positive note: Assessing the achievements in the four Macro-Regional Strategies, the European Commission acknowledges the contributions for the green, digital and social transition. The place-based approach of macro-regional strategies seem to support the translation of European objectives into the (maro-) regional context. Likewise, the strategies showed their potential to strengthen capacity building in non-EU member states. The strategies support trust building and can make a major contribution in the accession process.

At the same time, the war in Ukraine also changed the focus towards security, especially energy security. Thereby, the thematic focus of the strategies slightly shifts.

Despite the many positive aspects of the analysis, the European Commission also calls for better cross-macro-regional cooperation. The stakeholders of the strategies need to increase teir efforts for cooperation across strategies and across borders. Likewise, the report also emphasies the importance of maintaining or increasing the committment of all stakeholders in order to keep the achievements and further build on them.

The European Commission will passon the report to the European Council. The Council Conclusion will be endorsed next year under the Swedish Council Presidency.