The Adriatic Ionian Euroregion, represented by the President Dobroslavic and the Secretary General Francesco Cocco, took part in the event “Delivering EUSAIR’S Implementation” hosted by the MEP Ivan Jakovcic on November the 8th at the European Parliament. The event was an occasion to discuss the progress of the EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region and to establish the informal group of the European Parliament “FRIENDS OF EUSAIR“, a group composed by seventeen MEPs from different political groups and Member States. Now they are all more committed to support the strategy and its Action Plan.
In the presence of European Commission and many other international representatives of the associations, working in the area of Adriatic-Ionian macro-region, MEP Jakovčić emphasized the need to accelerate the implementation of the action plan and political goals of EUSAIR. One of this accelerations will be the platform for promoting structured dialogue and more effective cooperation among key Adriatic-Ionian stakeholders, called the “The AI-NURECC Initiative”, which was presented by one of the speakers, Eleni Marianou, Secretary General of CPMR.
So the new initiative AI-NURECC has been launched involving five major networks of the Adriatic and Ionian area: The Adriatic Ionian Euroregion, the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR), the Forum of the Adriatic Ionian Chamber of Commerce, the Forum of Adriatic and Ionian Cities and UniAdrion. The aim is to boost the sound implementation of the strategy working in coherence with the action plan and in close cooperation with the European Institutions, the Adriatic Ionian Initiative and the Ministries of the countries involved in the strategies.
A valuable contribution was given to the event by the European Commission from DG REGIO, which was represented by Lena Andersson Pench, Director for European Territorial Cooperation, Macro-regions, Interreg and Programme Implementation, and Jean-Pierre Halkin, Head of Unit for Macro-regions that gave full support to the Strategy and exchanged opinions with the audience that were representing cities and regions, chambers of commerce, universities and non-governmental organizations, who make diversified network of stakeholders with the strength to initiate the realization of joint projects in the areas of transport, energy, environmental protection, tourism and entrepreneurship. They underlined also the importance of the AI_NURECC Initiative and have communicated the will of the Commission to support the project’s activities.
Other speakers of the round table “Delivering EUSAIR’s implementation” were the following: President of the Adriatic Ionian Euroregion, Nikola Dobroslavić, Secretary General Ida Simonella and assistance coordinator Francesco Buoncompagni from the Forum of Adriatic and Ionian Cities, President of the Forum of Adriatic and Ionian Chambers of Commerce, Mirjana Čagalj, Secretary General of UniAdrion, Mario Giordano and the President of Interregional group Adriatic-Ionian Committee of the Region, Paolo Di Laura Frattura.
