Macro-Regions of Europe: Old Wine in a New Bottle?
The concept of macro-regions was born from an initiative of the Baltic countries. The national governments and an informal group of members of the European Parliament (the Europe Baltic Intergroup) from the Baltic States have undertaken constant efforts to propose a new transnational development strategy for this region to both the European Council and Commission. The Swedish government took great part in promotion and political lobby. The strategy was adopted by the European Council in October 2009 during the Swedish Presidency. Decisive factors included the explicit political will of the national governments of the area and the promotion of consensus at diverse levels. Moreover, legislative, institutional and financial pressure was not placed on the European Union (EU) in order to avoid any potential hostilities from Member States not pertaining to the area of interest.
