The European Parliament’s Committee on Regional Development (REGI Committee) has recently commissioned OIR for a research study on the “New role of macro-regions in European Territorial Cooperation”. Based on the experience from the two first macro-regional strategies and the new Cohesion Policy regulations for the 2014-2020 programming period, the aim of the study is to analyse the future role of macro-regions in the implementation of the European Territorial Cooperation. It covers potential benefits of development of new macro-regional (and sea basin) strategies as well as the most common risks and difficulties in their implementation. In particular, its aim is to investigate what are the best and most efficient ways of implementing new rules introduced with the new ETC regulation, and take into account other elements of the new Cohesion Policy, including the regulation on the European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC). This study facilitates the discussions on the future macro-regional strategies and the modifications necessary for the already existing ones in the context of the new Cohesion Policy and its second objective (ETC).
