Potential of the Balkans and Black Sea area in the light of European Neighbourhood Policy revision - Hoofdinhoud
On the 29th of May the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR) , representatives of the Committee of the Regions (CoR), European Parliament and the European Commission debated about the potential for, and challenges facing the Balkan and the Black Sea Area in the coming years. Speakers assumed that regions play a fundamental role in shaping European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) through interregional cooperation, especially in that region because of its geostrategic position. The area crosses EU Member States, EU candidate countries including Turkey, countries of the Eastern Partnership and the Russian Federation . Moreover, it entails a big potential for economy in a blue economy. All this will be taken into account in the revision of the ENP.
Regional cooperation initiative launched by the European Commission called the 'Black Sea Synergy programme' had a total budget of 28.1 million euro between 2007-13, whereas for a period 2014-2020 there is 49 million euro to be spent. The programme has a clear focus on civil society and local level crossborder cooperation, aiming additionally to foster consistency with other national and transnational programmes and strategies.
As Dimitrios Petrovits (CoR member) noticed the geostrategic position of that region is crucial for the EU. It marks the external EU border and as a result has a considerable negative impact on immigration. The CoR has launched a political dialogue between regions and local authorities of the European Union and the ENP partner countries by creating two structures of dialogue: CORLEAP and ARLEM, both important for the Balkans-Black Sea area and intend to contribute in implementing the ENP.
CORLEAP is a Conference of Local and Regional Authorities for the Eastern Partnership (EaP). It exists since 2011 and gathers 18 political representatives from the EU and 18 from the EaP countries. At its annual meeting this year, CORLEAP gave a response to the European Commission's consultation on the revision of the European Neighbourhood Policy and suggested to step up the process of decentralisation, including fiscal decentralisation and the use of multi-governance in the neighbourhood countries. This was also confirmed on the 29th of May by Mick Antoniw ( CORLEAP Bureau Member), who emphasized that the financial plans without involvement of regional and local level can only fail.
As regards the southern neighbourhood countries the CoR launched ARLEM - the Euro-Mediterranean Local and Regional Assembly. It is a permanent, joint assembly, it has an institutional framework to bring together CoR members and representatives of European associations involved in Euro-Mediterranean cooperation with their counterparts from the Mediterranean partners. ARLEM, which shares with the CPMR the aim of having a macro-regional strategy, adopted in 2014 a report on a cohesion policy for the Mediterranean. "We want to apply the model of European social, economic and territorial cohesion to the Mediterranean, and develop a macro-regional strategy for the region. This should help to forge a coherent approach for our common action, a better use of the existing resources, and the reinforcement of multi-level governance in ENP" said President Markku Markkula.
This area of Europe is crucial for a "Blue Growth", which is the long term strategy to support sustainable growth in the marine and maritime sectors as a whole. Schuman Hitzler from Directorate General European Neighbourhood Policy and Enlargement Negotiations (DG NEAR) stressed that blue growth is one of the most important priorities for an integrate maritime policy, hence it needs research, which in turn will bring more opportunities in education (for instance programme Erasmus +), greener and more efficient transport, maritime safety and energy security. This potential was examined by the CoR a few times by the rapporteur Adam Banaszak .
Nevertheless, Eleni Marianou (Secretary General of the CPMR) assumed that the EU's focus on the Black Sea and Balkan area will not only benefit the economy, but culture as well. She said that: "I’m a big believer that regional and supra-regional approach can bring great results, revision of the ENP including a multi - stakeholder approach would bring one strategy as well as shared responsibility of regions and cities".
Contact:
Julia Rokicka