The European Commission has adopted a revised Action Plan for the EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region (EUSAIR), marking a significant new phase for regional cooperation and sustainable development. The adoption of the Action Plan sets the stage for a more resilient and interconnected Adriatic-Ionian region.
As South-East Europe Team Leader Gilles Kittel (European Commission, Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy) explained recently at the 10th EUSAIR Forum in Crete, no revision has been done in the past more than 10 years. Launched in 2014, EUSAIR brings together ten participating countries: four EU Member States (Croatia, Greece, Italy, Slovenia), five EU candidate countries (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia), and one non-EU country (San Marino).
Other reasons for the revision of the Action Plain include new challenges (war in Ukraine, energy crisis, European Green Deal, demographic shifts), evolution of the governance structure and set-up of the EUSAIR Youth Council, as well as the need to align the Action Plan with new EU political priorities.
Social dimension is one of the main areas of revision: a new 5th pillar called Improved Social Cohesion has been added to the original four, aimed at addressing socio-economic disparities, boosting youth engagement, and enhancing social inclusion across the region. Since its inception, EUSAIR has focused on four main pillars: Blue Sustainable Economy, Connecting the Region (Transport and Energy), Environmental Quality, and Sustainable Tourism.
There is also a new structure with three horizontal and three cross-cutting topics. The three horizontal topics are: enlargement; capacity building; research, innovation and development. The three cross-cutting topics are: circular economy, green rural development and digitalisation. Identifying green rural development as a cross-cutting issue emphasises the importance of balancing the “blue” and “green” development of the wider region.
The presentation of Mr Kittel at the 10th EUSAIR Annual Forum in Crete is available here.
