They discussed the initiative, which was launched by Italy and joined by Croatia, Greece and Slovenia, to draw up a strategy for the Adriatic-Ionian macro-region on the model of the already established Baltic and Danube macro-regions. Apart from said countries, the Adriatic-Ionian macro-region would also comprise EU membership candidates and potential candidates Montenegro, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Serbia, and Albania.
Pusić said that at this stage the idea was to initially include only the coastal areas of these countries and then gradually expand to include the rest of their territories.
The advantage of the macro-regional approach is the improved cooperation between neighbouring regions in the European Union and outside it in order to make better use of the existing instruments such as structural funds.
The plan is to complete the strategy for the Adriatic-Ionian region by 2014 when the Council of the EU will be chaired by Greece and Italy.
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