European Parliament
Andreas Mölzer  (NI ),
in writing.
(DE)
The aim of the Baltic Sea macro-region, which was established in 2009, is to provide better solutions for the economic and environmental problems in this area. On the basis of the experiences acquired here, similar frameworks have been created jointly for different macro-regions in Europe which have common features, such as maritime areas, mountain ranges or river basins, in order to open up new opportunities for territorial cooperation projects as part of cohesion policy. Macro-regional projects may, in principle, have a positive impact on EU Neighbourhood Policy, but a separate macro-regional strategy does not appear to be necessary. There is the risk that the result will simply be to create a large and inefficient system which turns into a bottomless money pit. The argument that an intergovernmental solution should definitely be avoided when organising the macro-regions is hard to understand. I prefer the spontaneous forms of cooperation that we have seen in the past, for example, in the Danube region, to bureaucratic solutions that are set in stone. Therefore, I have voted against the report.

