The role of the European Union macroregional strategies: between the steadfast commitment of participating countries and an ad hoc approach

The European Union macro-regional strategies represent a policy framework that aims to enable EU Member States and third countries sharing common interests to better coordinate their potentials in order to make the best possible use of available opportunities. This paper looks into the specificities of four EU macro-regional strategies covering 19 European Union Member States and nine non-EU countries. Given the challenging situation caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, it also considers the future perspectives of EU macro-regional strategies as well as their adaptability to new circumstances. More specifically, it focuses on intergovernmental initiatives and their implementation, underlying the importance of the application of the principle of subsidiarity. In addition, the aim of the paper is to provide a critical overview of the subject by highlighting two pivotal elements. First, it assesses whether the EU macro-regional strategies could be genuinely successful, given the fact that they do not have their separate allocation but use the existing funding instead. Second, it explores the ability of the EU macro-regional strategies to bridge wider EU-level policies on the one hand and local policies on the other. Finally, the idea of the paper is to offer an overview of the state of affairs when macro-regions are concerned. Makroregionalne strategije Europske unije okvir su politike koji ima za cilj omogućiti državama članicama EU-a i trećim zemljama, koje dijele zajedničke interese, da bolje koordiniraju svoje potencijale kako bi na najbolji način iskoristile dostupne mogućnosti. Ovaj rad razmatra specifičnosti četiriju makroregionalnih strategija EU-a koje pokrivaju 19 država članica i devet zemalja koje nisu članice EU-a. S obzirom na izazovnu situaciju uzrokovanu pandemijom bolesti COVID-19, razmatraju se i buduće perspektive makroregionalnih strategija EU-a kao i njihova prilagodljivost novim okolnostima. Točnije, usredotočuje se na međuvladine inicijative i njihovu provedbu, što je temelj primjene načela supsidijarnosti. Uz to, cilj je rada dati kritički presjek teme naglašavajući dva ključna elementa. Prvo, procjenjuje se mogu li makroregionalne strategije EU-a biti istinski uspješne s obzirom na to da nemaju zasebnu alokaciju sredstava, već koriste postojeća sredstva. Drugo, istražuje se sposobnost makroregionalnih strategija EU-a da premoste razlike između politika na razini EU-a s jedne strane i lokalnih politika s druge. Ideja je rada ponuditi pregl