Michal Blaško (SK EUSDR Presidency 2021) speaking on behalf of the EUSDR at the 14th HLG on MRS

At the 14th High Level Group meeting on macro-regional strategies MRS presidencies gave insight into the state of play in the Baltic Sea Region, the Alpine Region and the Danube Region. While all strategies continue to pursue the coordination of their thematic priorities with available EU funding (“embedding”), the EUSBSR recently focused on the revision of the Action Plan, EUSAIR just welcomed San Marino as participating state and EUSALP underlined the work of the EUSALP Youth Council. EUSDR hopes to welcome back Ukrainian colleagues as soon as possible to jointly focus on bringing Ukraine closer to a European Union membership.

 

In particular, Michal Blaško, representative of the previous Slovak EUSDR Presidency, presented the embedding activities implemented in the Danube Region. In this regard, DG REGIO underlined the guiding role of the Danube Region Strategy for other MRS.

 

Also, Executive Director Assya Kavrakova of the network association European Citizen Action Service was invited to share some of the services, studies, capacity building and advocacy initiatives with MRS representatives, inspiring MRS to engage with civil society wherever meaningful and possible.

 

In the closing words of the meeting DG REGIO encouraged all MRS participating states to take on the presidency of their respective MRS, as it is a way to strengthen their role in macro-regional strategies. The progress made in embedding was appreciated. Now it needs to be made sure that “the DNA of MRS is represented in the different programmes of the European Union”.