The European Committee of the Regions, which represents the interests of regions and cities in the EU, has called for a "macro-regional strategy for the Mediterranean" which would involve Mediterranean countries meeting once a year "in a special forum and cooperate in various areas," Croatian state agency Hina said on Wednesday. 

The European Union currently has four such forums or political frameworks through which countries located in the same region cooperate — the Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region, established in 2009, the Strategy for the Danube Region (2010), the Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region (2014) and the Strategy for the Alpine Region (2015).

“The Mediterranean, too, needs a macro-regional strategy because the problems identified across the Mediterranean cannot be resolved by local, regional, national or even European forums alone,” Nikola Dobroslavic, the Committee’s rapporteur, member of Croatia’s ruling HDZ party, and head of Croatia’s Dubrovnik-Neretva County, told Croatian reporters in Brussels.

“The special problems that need to be addressed in the Mediterranean are global warming and pollution. This requires inclusion of non-EU countries too,” he said, warning that 50,000 plastic bottles are thrown into the Mediterranean Sea every minute and that the temperature in this region might increase by 2.2 degrees Celsius by 2040.

The European Committee of the Regions, which includes political representatives of regions from 27 EU member states, agreed at its plenary session on Tuesday on the need to establish a forum of the Mediterranean countries, which would also address other issues such as the economy and migration. Since the Committee is an advisory body, it addressed its initiative to the three institutions of the EU — the European Council, the European Commission and the European Parliament.

The European Committee of the Regions expects the macro-regional strategy for the Mediterranean to become a reality in 2023, during the Spanish presidency of the EU.

“This initiative was launched by Spanish, French and Italian regions. Regions in northern Europe understand this as well because they already have the Baltic strategy and they know that that is a good tool for improving the situation and stand in solidarity with the Mediterranean regions,” Dobroslavic said.

Croatia already participates in the Adriatic and Ionian and the Danube forum. Both forums include both EU member states and non-EU countries, cooperating in cross-border projects that are co-financed from EU funds.

The Mediterranean region covers 22 countries with 500 million people, and the proposed participation in this forum would be open to all these countries.

“We hope it will be possible to include them all because the Mediterranean is a diverse region,” Dobroslavic noted.

With the establishment of the Strategy for the Mediterranean, the Adriatic and Ionian forum would continue to exist and would be included in the new Mediterranean forum. The role of Mediterranean-related organizations would not change either, such as the role of the Union for the Mediterranean which is based in Barcelona.

“Countries with access to the Atlantic Ocean and those located in the Carpathians are also thinking of launching their respective initiatives,” Hina said.