The Committee of the Regions (CoR) is organising a Forum on Macro-Regions with regional representatives, experts and other stakeholders from existing and emerging 'macro-regions' at the CoR headquarters in Brussels. Baltic Sea, Danube and North Sea-English Channel are the major figures of this event.

Brussels headquarters of CoR will host on 13 April 2010 a forum with the aim of assessing cooperation between macro-regions in Europe. The aim is to discuss issues related to strategy development and implementation and other themes of common interest. It will try to answer these questions:

• What lessons can be drawn from existing and emerging 'macro-regional strategies'?
• What is the role of local and regional authorities in the development and implementation of 'macro-regional strategies'?
• To which extent can macro-regions be comprehensive in their approach, covering several policy areas?
• Should macro-regions become a means to deliver significant EU funding?
• What can macro-regions deliver in terms of economic and environmental benefits?

Three work streams will address specific issues related to the Baltic Sea Regions, the Danube Region and the North Sea English Channel Region.

This Forum "Integration through territorial cooperation"is organised in the framework of the EU strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (adopted in 2009) and the strategy on the Danube Region (currently in preparation), while stakeholders from the North Sea-English Channel Region are at the beginning of discussions to move towards a more integrated approach in the same line that the two other regions.