Brussels, 07/11/2013 (Agence Europe) - Artur Mas, President of Catalonia and also President of the Conference of the Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) Inter-Mediterranean Commission (IMC), has called for the creation of macro-regional regions in the Mediterranean area. He urges the EU and member states to consider the “applying a macro-regional approach to the Mediterranean area and a convergence approach for the EU Neighbourhood Policy”.
The IMC recommends “strong convergence” with the EU Neighbourhood Policy “based on the experience of EU cohesion policy”. Mas considers that policies deployed in the Mediterranean show that challenges have not yet been tackled in an appropriate manner, despite relatively strong deployment of resources and players. This, he feels, is very evident and the development gap in our territories is still very marked.
The experience of macro-regions already set up in the Baltic or along the Danube will prove useful, he says. “We consider that this approach is highly interesting in terms of territorial development and cohesion for the future in Europe and its borders”, he writes on the IMC website.
Mas points out that macro-regions will provide a research framework for “synergies” between bordering regions that will have the “the potential to provide a useful and more systematic cooperation mechanism, capable of generating more efficient and effective synergy among already existing policies, strategies, key public and private actors, resources and instruments, concentrating the efforts on themes and challenges of mutual interest and for mutual benefit”.
Mas recognises, however, that “the geopolitical, cultural, environmental and socio-economic situation of the Mediterranean is very complex”. Financial and cooperation instruments must be employed “more effectively”. He considers that “the ongoing transition processes after the Arab Spring are an opportunity to be seized, especially concerning the decentralisation and the democratisation processes that could be supported”. (FB/transl.jl)