Romania, Poland call for establishment of European tool to finance Carpathian macro-region projects

Representatives of the Polish region Podkarpackie and Centru Region of Romania have initiated a joint call in Brasov, on Tuesday, addressed to the governments of the two countries and the EU governing bodies regarding the necessity of establishing some funding tools under the current European budget to develop the Carpathian region.

Organised by the Regional Development Agency - Centru (ADR Centru) in Brasov, for two days, Monday and Tuesday, the event gathered representatives of the Podkarpackie Region of Poland and the Centru Region in Romania, alongside representatives of Romania's and Poland's Governments, discussing the Carpathian Strategy, an additional document to the Danube Strategy, which is to be promoted at European level.

At the event called "International working meeting on preparing projects for the development of the mountain area in the Centru Region," organised by the Regional Development Agency - Centru, they also tackled "the possibilities to boost actions at national and regional level in all the Carpathian states, in view of creating and supporting some adequate tools for the sustainable development of the Carpathian Region," while also analysing "the issues facing the communities in the area of the Carpathian Mountains, the necessary investments, the opportunities and challenges of sustainable development of the mountain area, the necessity to quickly recover the development gaps between this and the other European regions."

The working meetings were led by Marshal of the Podkarpackie Region Wladyslaw Ortyl, who is also the head of the Inter-regional Working Group for the Carpathians within the European Committee of the Regions, alongside the leadership of the Brasov County Council and members of the Council for the Regional Development Centru, alongside the director general of the ADR Centru, who moderated this international meeting.

The signatories of the Joint Call believe that "the Carpathian regions in Europe will become a strong and well-articulated voice within the decision-making bodies at European level, and they want for "the European Union to define and adopt a development strategy, close, in terms of concept, to the four programmatic documents at macro-regional level, as a tool to strengthen territorial cohesion."