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In this interview we discuss with Gilles Kittel, from the European Commission (EC), Directorate General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO), where he is Team Leader – Instrument for Pre-Accession, Enlargement Negotiations, and EU Strategy for the Adriatic-Ionian Region (EUSAIR). Gilles Kittel shares valuable insights into the strategic objectives and accomplishments of the EUSAIR, particularly in relation to the five Western Balkans economies which are covered in this Programme (Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia, Serbia) next to the four EU Member States the Strategy also covers (Croatia, Greece, Italy, Slovenia). Gilles highlights the innovative projects currently being implemented in the region, the alignment of EUSAIR with the broader EU enlargement policy, and offers advice for Western Balkan policymakers on maximising the benefits of EU programmes. Additionally, he explores the pivotal role of researchers, innovators, and educators in driving the strategy’s future and provides a glimpse into the forthcoming developments within the EUSAIR framework.
POLICY ANSWERS: Can you outline the main objectives and outcomes of the Adriatic Ionian Macro-Region Strategy for the five Western Balkan economies covered by the Programme, and share some success stories? What innovative projects are currently being implemented under EUSAIR in the Western Balkans?
Gilles: The EUSAIR, ‘the Strategy’ hereafter, represents a long-term strategic policy framework, which aims to contribute to the economic development and social cohesion of its region and the wider region by addressing common challenges and opportunities in its four, and soon five, thematic areas.
Thanks to its strategic location on the EU’s external border, the Strategy has increasingly focused on supporting the EU enlargement process in neighbouring regions. The Adriatic and Ionian region benefits from its unparalleled natural and cultural heritage, which makes it one of the most attractive regions in Europe in terms of tourism, while it has a great renewable energy and blue economy potential. However, some challenges remain such as climate crisis, ageing and demographic shift, brain drain process and a general de-population, territorial fragmentation, socio-economic disparities, a lack of connectivity, etc.
The revision of the EUSAIR action plan is taking account of this new, post-Covid reality. The green and digital transition are interlinked, and the Strategy has already played a significant role also in the digital transition, supporting the implementation of the European Digital Strategy in the region. For instance, the Strategy has supported the development of a network of sustainable tourism business and clusters in the Adriatic-Ionian region and in the Western Balkans in particular. The aim has been to adopt and implement the EU Eco-Management and Audit Scheme (EMAS), the European Tourism Indicators System for sustainable destination management (ETIS) and other green (sustainable) Certification Schemes.
Another example is the project “EUSAIR bringing the Green Deal to the Region”, that aims to support the adoption of more sustainable practices in the governance of the Strategy and to raise environmental awareness in the daily work and life. More specifically, the project has promoted sustainable consumption, sustainability principles (restriction of single use plastics…), the use of Green Public Procurement, the reduction of the carbon and environmental footprint, capacity building and in general the green transformation of the Strategy’s stakeholders.
POLICY ANSWERS: How does the EUSAIR strategy align with the broader goals of the EU’s enlargement policy, now or in the future?
Gilles: Since its establishment, the Strategy has set the EU enlargement a priority. This became even more important after the inclusion of North Macedonia in the EUSAIR in 2020, which made the Strategy the only EU macro-regional strategy having more third countries than Member States. In this context, the objective of the revised EUSAIR action plan should be to significantly accelerate the speed of the Western Balkans enlargement process and the growth of their economies – the latter could see the size of their economies doubling in the next decade thanks to the EU Investment Plan for the Western Balkans or more recently the Growth Plan for the Western Balkans. The Strategy is giving them early access to some EU policies and hence speeding up their EU accession processes. In this context, while the EU candidate countries being in the waiting room, the role of the Strategy is even more important to help their preparation at sectoral level and on the other side to show political support. To enhance this role, DG REGIO promoted a report on the EUSAIR facilitating the enlargement process of the Western Balkans to examine complementarities between the EUSAIR Action Plan and the enlargement process, to evaluate its contribution and to make recommendation to strengthen its actions towards enlargement.
In the EU macro-regional strategies, the political level is represented by the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and the ministers or authorities in charge of EU funds. For EUSAIR involving five EU candidate countries, the National IPA Coordinators are also closely associated and provide the political and strategic direction.
POLICY ANSWERS: What advice would you give to Western Balkan policymakers to maximise the benefits from the EU programmes and the Adriatic Ionian Macro-Region Strategy?
Gilles: EUSAIR is well aligned with the overall objective of the cohesion policy to contribute to strengthening economic, social and territorial cohesion and to correct imbalances between countries and regions. A clear added value of the strategy is to bring a placed-based approach to public policies in the Western Balkans by supporting initiatives emerging at local and regional level that could benefit from cooperation at macro-regional level. In the Strategy a wide range of processes and projects currently bridges local and regional action with European political and programmes’ priorities. This should serve as a pathway for Western Balkan policymakers.
After ten years of implementation, the Strategy is becoming more and more popular among Adriatic and Ionian stakeholders and project beneficiaries. They find more natural to establish partnerships and to plan activities and projects together, not only in the framework of Interreg programmes in the region, but also for funding programmes directly managed by the Commission and for possible cooperation actions under the Cohesion Policy funds. The embedding experience of the Action Labs for the EUSAIR European Territorial Cooperation programmes is a very positive example. It should be extended to mainstream cohesion policy and IPA III programmes. The outcome should be the establishment of a network of Managing Authorities and National IPA Coordinators that would cooperate on the definition of terms or references, preparation of call for proposals, information to beneficiaries and on supporting the implementation of joint or parallel projects contributing to pre-defined EUSAIR flagships. A big challenge for the Strategy is to combine several sources of EU funding (Cohesion Policy Funds, IPA III, IPARD III, Horizon Europe, Erasmus+, etc), which work according to different regulations, methodologies, timing, and with different structures. Western Balkans’ policymakers should increase efforts to make these different worlds communicate more with each other and develop more synergies for the implementation of EU programmes and the Strategy’s actions and projects.
POLICY ANSWERS: In which way can researchers, innovators, educators and other creative professionals from the WB region get engaged in the processes you described?
Gilles: Part of the Adriatic and Ionian Civil society is engaged in the Strategy particularly through the forum of the Adriatic Ionian Chambers of Commerce (Forum AIC), the Forum of Adriatic and Ionian Cities (FAIC) and the Association of the Universities of the Adriatic and Ionian region (UNIADRION) representing a network of more than 120 bodies and institutions. Nevertheless, the Strategy needs to reach out more to civil society organisations, to raise awareness on its opportunities, inform about events, activities, actions and accept its contribution both in terms of implementation (through the participation to actions and projects) and in terms of including it more in policy discussions and consultations.
Researchers, innovators, educators, and other creative professionals from the WB region should therefore be a bigger part of a vibrant learning environment of the Strategy where their ideas and reflections would shape the Strategy’s future. Across the region, the Strategy as a cooperation platform should indeed connect them more with other Strategy’s stakeholders, such as for instance thematic steering group members, project partners, or city representatives. This dynamic and international community could drive meaningful conversations, explore varied formats of engagement, enhance exchanges about interdisciplinary work models, stimulate co-creation and create knowledge about inclusive, sustainable, just and beautiful Adriatic Ionian region’s transformations.
POLICY ANSWERS: Could you share some information about the plans for the future? What are the next steps in the development of the EUSAIR?
Gilles: The revision of the EUSAIR action plan is now almost achieved and the revised action plan should be published before the end of this year. The implementation milestones of the revised EUSAIR action plan, and the new pillars, actions and topics will be the new compass. In this perspective, further work is nevertheless required to empower the key Strategy’s implementers with clear mandates, effective decision-making capacity, and a clear vision on how their fields of work contribute to the broader policy context, while ensuring a stable environment with access to the resources, technical capacity and skills needed. A balance should still be found between frequent, targeted digital meetings for coordination and information exchange and high-quality in-person meetings that allow for direct exchange and joint development of new ideas. In this context, it is also undeniable that the role of civil society organisations has been growing over time. And as said before, it is still necessary to increase the involvement of these organisations in the Strategy and more broadly to mobilise local stakeholders, being researchers, innovators, educators or other creative professionals, around common goals. The establishment of a further institutionalised citizens’ dialogue at macro-regional level could help in this respect.
The Strategy should also increase its efforts to support new activities in fields where cooperation at macro-regional level provides an added value and where the Strategy could open for solutions that are difficult to achieve in more formalised contexts, such as energy poverty. The REPowerEU plan specifically refers to the role of macro-regional strategies as cooperation frameworks to promote investments in hydrogen infrastructure in a cross-border, interregional and transnational context. The Plan also mentions the function of cohesion policy (including Interreg) in removing bottlenecks to solar energy expansion in distribution and transmission grids and in developing decentralised cross-border electricity and energy markets.
These are areas where the Strategy will need to turn its attention in the years to come.
POLICY ANSWERS: Many thanks for your time.