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ACTIVITIES > Neighbourhood
The issues
European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) was launched in 2003 by the European Commission in order to propose a coherent project for involving the EU’s southern and eastern neighbours. It became an EU policy in its own right in 2007 with the creation of the European Neighbourhood and Partnership Instrument (ENPI).
The CPMR has been involved from the outset in discussions on the EU’s relations with its neighbourhood, and all along has been seeking to promote the role of the Regions for a balanced development of the EU’s border areas.
The CPMR’s considerations have allowed it to conceive a broad-based approach to Europe as a “geostrategic area of 800 million inhabitants”. It is on this basis that the CPMR is putting forward the idea of a convergence policy at the Union’s borders aimed at guaranteeing peace, stability and prosperity.
The Regions currently have the possibility of participating in ENP through the “cross-border cooperation” strand of ENPI. Through a “sea-basin” approach, projects can be delivered on a wide scale between regional partners of EU member and non-member states.
The main challenge of ENP is to succeed in broadening and enhancing these new partnerships to turn them into drivers for a coherent and dynamic European periphery.
For the CPMR; this can be achieved notably by joining up ENP and regional policy for an enlarged cohesion policy and by respecting territorial diversity. The CPMR is therefore working together with its partners to look into a macro-regional approach with the aim of coordinating and improving the impact of policies led in the different neighbourhood areas.
Beyond these operational aspects, the CPMR is also looking deeper into issues related to the major strategic neighbourhood projects, namely the Union for the Mediterranean, the Baltic Strategy and the Northern Dimension, the Eastern Partnership and the Black Sea Synergy.