ABSTRACT
Like the other examples of “soft spaces” (outlined above), the emergence of European
macro-regions is relatively new but have been considered and discussed for more than a
decade. The ideas and foundations of these strategies can often be traced back to European
territorial cooperation programmes and related activities (Dubois et al., 2009). Two
examples of European macro-regional strategies exist to date: the EU Strategy for the
Baltic Sea Region (launched in 2009) and the EU Strategy for the Danube Region
(launched in 2011). In addition, strategies for the Mediterranean, Alpine and North Sea
regions are under various stages of discussion/consideration.
