Macro-regional Strategies of European Integration. What can the Danube Region Learn from the Baltic Sea Region?

The European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region (EUSBSR) is the first European Union (EU) macro-regional strategy, it was adopted in 2009, and it was followed in 2011 by the EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR). Both of them seem to represent new ways of conducting EU's regional policy. Without creating new rules, without new institutions and without offering new financing sources, this so-called new macro-regional dimension of EU's regional policy is perceived as a new added value of the European territorial policy. Due to the lack of relevant studies regarding the implementation of the EUSDR Strategy, the purpose of this paper is to contribute to the understanding of the creation of macro regions and the opportunities that they provide. This article offers a comparative optic between EUSBSR and EUSDR, appealing to the experience of the first EU macro-regional strategy, highlighting the lessons that the Danube Region can learn from the Baltic Sea Region and making some remarks regarding the future of macro-regions.