On the 23rd of May, the Lithuanian Presidency of the EU Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) and the Trio Presidency of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) organised the 1st joint informal meeting with the Policy Area Coordinators and Priority area coordinators of the strategies (called “Coffee with the Presidency”). This meeting was dedicated for strengthening cooperation among the EU macro-regional strategies (MRS) at the Policy Area / Priority Area Coordinators’ (PACs) level.

The Lithuanian Presidency invited all the EU macro-regional strategies to consider the possibilities and willingness to cooperate at the PAC level. The Coffee with the Presidency format was suggested as a platform for the respective PACs to share the best practices and to look for ways of closer cooperation.

The PACs of Policy Area “Transport” of the EUSBSR and PACs of Priority Areas “Inland waterways” and “Rail-Road-Air Mobility” of the EUSDR presented their activities, results achieved so far, plans for the upcoming years and the possible areas of cross-MRS cooperation.

“We are glad that other EU macro-regional strategies accepted the EUSBSR’s invitation to foster cross-MRS cooperation. The sharing of the best lessons learnt, the presentation of activities and ideas is a way of creating synergies for tackling common challenges and for moving the implementation of the MRS forward. We expect the Coffee with the Presidency platform to become the first step for closer cooperation of PACs”, - stated Laura Čeponytė, representative of the Lithuanian Presidency of the EUSBSR and co-chair of this Coffee with the Presidency meeting.

Next Coffee with the Presidency meeting will be held on 10 June, the PACs of the MRS are invited to consider the possibility to present the activities of respective PAs and to create cross-MRS partnerships.

The “Coffee with the Presidency” was an initiative of the German Presidency of the EUSBSR (2020-2021), which has been continued during the Lithuanian Presidency. It is dedicated to ensure close cooperation of the National Coordinators Group of the EUSBSR and the PACs, share the relevant information and best practices as well as to present PACs’ activities and plans.