After the launch of two macro-regional strategies – for the Baltic area (adopted by the European Council in October 2009), for the Danube (adopted by the European Council in June 2011) and for the Adriatic-Ionian Region (adopted by the European Council in October 2014) – discussion about possible other future European macro-regional strategies continued to take place.
An Alpine macro-regional strategy would provide an opportunity to improve cross-border cooperation in the Alpine States as well as identifying common goals and implementing them more effectively through transnational collaboration.
Better cooperation between the regions and States is needed to tackle those challenges. The EU-Strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP) aims at ensuring mutually beneficial interaction between the mountain regions at its core and the surrounding lowlands and urban areas, flexibly taking into account the functional relationships existing between these areas. The consultation is one of the actions put in place by the European Commission, in cooperation with member states, to define a strategy for the Alpine region by June 2015.
The EU Macro-regional Strategy for the Alpine Region will build upon three general action-oriented pillars: to improve the competitiveness, prosperity and cohesion of the Alpine Region, to ensure accessibility and connectivity for all the inhabitants of the Alpine Region and to make the Alpine Region´s environmentally sustainable and attractive.
As its main objective, the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region aims to ensure that this region remains one of the most attractive areas in Europe, taking better advantage of its assets and seizing its opportunities for sustainable and innovative development in a European context.
The Alpine Region is a major European crossroads. However, sustainable transport systems are a major challenge for the region. A coordinated policy, therefore, able to match the transport needs of the Macro-region and the equilibrium of a environment is a priority for this Strategy.
As with the road infrastructure, the railway density in the Alpine area also corresponds to EU averages. In the last decades the modal split has moved increasingly towards road transport. Therefore the increases may be compensated for either by more effective use of the existing rail network, or by carefully selected upgrades or extensions of the railway infrastructure. Such measures are a precondition to compensate for the predicted increase in freight volumes and to offer more competitive services. Insufficient interoperability between the different national railway infrastructures represents an important bottleneck of railway infrastructure. Optimisation of interoperability and of schedules may explore further potential for a successful increase in rail transport.
by Elena Ilie
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