Forum on EUSAIR and the Adriatic - Ionian University

Conference venue: San Giovanni Monte, Bologna - Italy
Period: December 5-6, 2013

In December 2012, the European Union mandated the European Commission to prepare an Action Plan for the so-called European Strategy for Adriatic-Ionian Region (EUSAIR). Consultations are in place right now about this topic.

The strategy covers 8 countries (Italy, Slovenia, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina and Serbia), 4 of which are EU Member States. So far EUSAIR consists in four thematic pillars and two crosscutting pillars. In 2014 the EUSAIR Action Plan will be launched by EU, the plan aims to coordinate multi-level integrated programming for the harmonious territorial development under the supervision of the European Commission.

Emilia-Romagna Region and the University of Bologna (Dipartimento DISCi and IECOB - Forlì) have constituted a Regional lab on macro-regional issues, as part of the project AdriGov, funded under  IPA Adriatic CBC Programme 2007-2013. The main objective of the Regional lab is to raise the quality, the effectiveness and the efficiency of the public administrations ensuring the active participation in the multi-level planning of EUSAIR.

In the framework of AdriGov project, Emilia-Romagna Region and the Regional lab on macro-regional issues organize the Forum  “EUSAIR - how to say it - Building a macro-regional awareness in the Adriatic-Ionian territories” that it will be held in Bologna on December 5th and 6th.

The Forum aims to involve the academic world of the Adriatic-Ionian Macro-Regional area in the EUSAIR consultation process. The scope is to understand what the universities think about the structure and the contents of the draft EUSAIR Action Plan. This initiative is intended to give an adequate territorial dimension to the policy-making process of the EUSAIR and to the implementation of the principles of subsidiary and democratic participation.

The main participants will be the academic institutions, the public administrations of the Adriatic-Ionian macro-regional area, the members of the Adriatic-Ionian Euroregion (26 local and territorial entities that represent 7 of the 8 EUSAIR countries) and project partners of AdriGov (13 partners from 6 EUSAIR countries).

A common position will be found out, gathered by the speeches, the papers and the peer-to-peer debate and the results of the two-days Forum will be formally forwarded to the EU authorities in charge of the EUSAIR (DG REGIO and DG MARE).

Elena Tagliani
Regione Emilia Romagna - Ufficio Studi di Prospettiva e Politiche Trasversali, Direzione programmazione Territoriale e Negoziata, Intese.
Relazioni internazionali e relazioni europee.
tel.: etagliani@regione.emilia-romagna.it
e-mail: 0039 051 3609