The present third issue of the magazine is published under the frame work of ENPI Med Basin project MARAKANDA, Network of Mediterranean markets. This project, promoted by the Municipality of Florence with a consortium of different cities and actors allows us a reflection on the different identities of several Mediterranean territories: some relevant stakeholders in the fields of diplomacy, public institutions and culture are proposed to give vivid impressions of these fragile and uncertain times. Overwhelmed by the financial crisis, personal opinions come to rapid changes and individuating our core priorities becomes difficult. The blogger Alex Lickerman writes: “The solutions our political leaders seek for our most pressing problems are largely determined by which are most popular. And which are most popular is largely determined by our population’s ability to understand the problems for which the solutions are being proposed. This, as far as I can tell, is dismal. This means the most popular solutions are also the solutions most likely to be wrong.” Well, solutions, as well as answers, are often wrong. Fortunately, we don’t have to give answers. We only try to give some impressions, to pose some questions.

The analysis on the 'governance' of migration policies conducted in three Euro-Mediterranean countries, particularly affected by the migratory phenomenon, shows a low degree of cooperation between local, national and European level. In general, if the policies of border control are managed mostly at the national level, the integration and social inclusion policies are carried out mainly at the local and regional level, through both institutional players and civil society associations and NGOs. Especially in the Italian context, third sector associations carry out concrete actions in addressing the immediate needs of migrants, but their intervention is fragile and poorly structured in the medium-long term. In addition, a relevant limit is related to the frequent lack of cooperation among regions and often a project relates to one area, without any attempt of involving the national or international networks.

 

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Maritime transport has always been the backbone of international trade. Presently, the vast
capacity it offers is yet to be exploited, while road transport networks are overcrowded.
Motorways of the Sea (MOS) could become a veritable alternative to congested roads and a
useful way to reduce costs, save energy and improve the environmental impact. The concept
of motorways of the sea aims at introducing new, integrated and intermodal maritime-based
logistics chains with high quality maritime links to connect the limited number of selected
ports that are located at strategic points on European coastlines. In this perspective, the port
should become a real highway, where the goods arrive by trucks or containers, then shipped
without unnecessary delays, while ensuring all maritime safety rules. By providing a regular
and high quality alternative to road transport permitting a massive modal shift of freight traffic
from roads to sea routes, this new logistics chain will bring to a structural change to transport
organization.

This Policy Brief focuses at contributions of regional actors to the governance of environmen-tal policies in the Mediterranean. Governance is defined as coordination systems between government, local and regional authorities, international organizations, private actors, com-panies and Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs), producing and implementing public policies. Governance can be institutionalized, ruled by procedures, or by informal rules. Two cases studies are analysed here: Natura 2000 and the prevention and fight against forest fires. Natura 2000 is a top-down governance system, designed at the European level with the intention to implement a coherent network of protected areas in the European Union (EU). The “Prevention and fight against forest fires” case is of national competence and the input from the top has mainly focussed on supporting the implementation of prevention activities. The analysis of the two cases takes place in the framework of the MedGovernance Project and shows that coordination exists between the central and regional territorial levels and that the degree of involvement of regional authorities is related to the degree of decentralization.

Regions in the Mediterranean have a long tradition and a rich experience in the field of cultu-re. Despite their sizeable resources, administrative capacity and political competences, their participation in formulating EU cultural policy and strategy is limited. Most Mediterranean Regions focus their activities in the field of culture on cultural events and activities and have cultural strategies as such for their own territories. In international cultural cooperation, the heterogeneity of competences and regional governance systems are serious obstacles to cultural cooperation, especially across the Mediterranean. Nevertheless, there is a huge a-mount of projects and experiences to draw upon and a critical mass of regions with extensive experience in international cultural cooperation exists. Lessons learned from the long tradi-tion of cultural cooperation between European regions could be used in North - South Medi-terranean cultural cooperation. Transnational projects are, however, often not subject to se-rious evaluation or impact assessment and therefore lessons are not sufficiently drawn from the experiences. Until now, networks of regional authorities are mainly of a generalist nature, have weak technical and lobbying capacities, and focus on declaratory activities and attrac-ting funds from States or international organizations.

As a product of the Medgov project, the document attempts to contribute to the accomplishment of the discussion about the realization of the Mediterranean macro region. This interesting debate, that is developing at the same time in different contexts (European Parliament, European Committee, Union for the Mediterranean, Mediterranean regions, competent Ministries in the different nations, CPMR etc..), today does not tackle the theme of the possible start and experimentation of the Mediterranean
macro region starting from the current planning pattern.