Brussels, 26/10/2011 (Agence Europe) - At the second Annual Forum on the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region on 24-26 October in Gdañsk (Poland) questions were asked about the European macro-economic strategy. The strategy has made progress but continued efforts are still required. The European commissioner for regional policy, Johannes Hahn, and Mercedes Bresso, the president of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), put forward their most recent recommendations during this forum in an effort to maximise the advantages contained within this strategy. “The EU strategy for the Baltic Sea Region is an experiment. Others are watching to see if this new macro regional approach really works. We are currently engaged in a review, and it is important that if some features of the strategy need adjusting, that changes are made”, explained the European commissioner. Last summer, an initial report was published on implementing the strategy. Hahn recognises that a number of goals have been obtained but challenges still persist. He insists that funding should be appropriate to the needs identified in the action plan. He also advocates that suitably qualified personnel be employed in the context of the strategy, which could help to attain the objectives set out. Clear and measurable indicators should be used in an effort to guide strategy implementation. Speaking on behalf the CoR, Bresso appealed for greater inclusion of the local and regional authorities in the decision-making related to the Baltic Sea strategy. In a much broader context, Hahn said that revision of cohesion policy (which he presented at the beginning of September) should help towards obtaining successful outcomes for macro-regional strategies because the system had been fully taken into account in the new legislative framework, which is expected to be adopted for the 2014-2020 period. Bresso said that the CoR was not fully convinced. She considers that the macro-regional strategy deserves a stronger reference in the new general regulation and that better links should be put in place between the new proposed instruments for intra-regional territorial development (e.g. local led development, integrated territorial investments, etc) and the macro-regional joint actions plans. She also considers that the system of ex-ante conditionality should be more strongly oriented towards this type of regional cooperation, from when the partnership contracts between Commission, member states and regions are signed. (MD/transl.fl)