Elisa Ferreira, the European
Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, highlighted the need to
strengthen cooperation as she addressed the 7th Annual Forum of
the EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region (EUSAIR) in
Tirana.
EUSAIR is made up four EU Member States (Croatia, Greece, Italy
and Slovenia), five non-EU States of the Western Balkans
(Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Montenegro, North Macedonia
and Serbia) and, as of this year, San Marino
"Today we need cooperation more than ever," Ferreira said.
"It's needed for the economic recovery from the pandemic, for a
response to Russian aggression, for support for Ukrainian
refugees and for a climate crisis that obliges us to change our
economy and way of living radically".
This forum is focusing on young people because 2022 is the
European Year of Youth and Tirana is in the European Capital of
Youth.
Other priorities are the Green Deal and the enlargement of the
EU to the Western Balkans.
"All these challenges require us to work together," Ferreira
concluded.
"(We must do this) on the basis of our shared European values,
from democracy to the rule of law, and of a common commitment to
solidarity and convergence and out of the conviction that
cooperation is the only road for a better future".
According to the TEVI 2050 study by the ESPON European
cooperation programme specializing in regional analysis, the
territory within the macroregion will be increasingly affected
by inequalities fed by an incomplete transition to a sustainable
economy, by depopulation and by the digital divide.
The researchers observed that, by 2050, there will be places fit
for the measures of the European Green Deal, as they will have
transformed their economy and society, deriving benefits from
the development of "blue" technologies regarding the sea.
A series of factors, however, will stop many areas within the
macroregion from making the most of their potential to achieve
the Green Deal goals.
In the hypothesized scenario, natural, tourism and rural areas
are the most vulnerable, as well as transport hubs.
Natural areas in particular will feel most the impact of climate
change and the main challenge will stem from biodiversity loss.
The same is true for tourism areas which, as a consequence, will
see their attractiveness reduced with respect to destinations of
a higher environmental quality.
Biodiversity loss will have negative effects on agriculture in
rural areas, which will also be exposed to declining
populations.
Transport hubs, meanwhile, will have to make massive investments
in the transformation towards more sustainable mobility.
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