Brussels, 13/11/2014 (Agence Europe) - Should the European Commission be examining the possibility of a strategy for the Mediterranean macro-region? Southern Europe is displaying increasing interest in macro-regional strategies that have been put to the test in the Danube Basin and Baltic Sea.
An Adriatic-Ionian macro-strategy has just been adopted by the Council (EUROPE 11184) and another one for the Alps is expected to follow over the next few months. There are those, however, who are already calling out for a similar exercise to be undertaken for the Mediterranean rim, in an effort to mobilise the coastal regions' forces for resolving common problems.
Michel Vauzelle, the president of the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions' (CPMR) Inter-Mediterranean Commission, said that “further unity and cooperation in the basin is necessary to reduce racist and xenophobic behaviour”. During the Mediterranean Cooperation Days organised at the beginning of the week in Rome, under the auspices of the Italian presidency, he explained that “strategies such as the emergence of an integrated macro-region of the Mediterranean should be a first step towards uniting both shores of this sea”. Michela Giuffrida (S&D, Italy) asserted that, “the Adriatic-Ionian region can be used as a strong pilot strategy towards the building of a multilevel governance macro-region for the whole of the Mediterranean”. She also promised to promote this kind of “Med Strategy”. (MD)