Regional cooperation in Europe
The European Commission has recently prepared a report to the Council on "Regional cooperation in Europe". The report aims to give an overview of regional cooperation initiatives in Europe and propose guidelines for the future. The Commission expresses its support for initiatives to promote regional cooperation as a way of enhancing peace, stability and security in Europe, as well as promoting European integration. It proposes, however, that the Community should support initiatives which show a capacity and ability to promote concrete objectives and projects within an effective geographical area, and which do not remain solely fora for discussion. It also states that the EU's general approach to regional cooperation should be based on existing political, commercial and technical assistance instruments.