Within the Conference, involving parliament members of Ukraine, Poland, Hungary and Slovakia, a number of issues were discussed, particularly that of parliamentary cooperation between the Carpathian countries and discussion of the Carpathian Strategy provisions.
Speaking in the discussion block “Parliamentary cooperation of Carpathian countries”, Ruslan Koshulynskyi noted that Carpathians are one of the most important mountainous regions of Europe. He added that after the latter extension of the European Union, Carpathians make up its Eastern border which “significantly increases importance of this territory to maintain stable development and integrity of European Union”.
At the same time, Deputy Chairman of the Parliament acknowledged that currently, population of the Carpathian macro-region faces a number of difficulties, particularly, lack of infrastructure, noticeable differences in social status, ever-increasing level of unemployment, etc. According to R.Koshulynskyi, activity for modernization and development of Carpathian macro-region is necessary both from the point of view of certain member states and the whole European Union in the context of its future development in Eastern direction.
By results of the work of the Conference, the Krasichansk draft Declaration “Europe of the Carpathians” was suggested for elaboration.
The draft Declaration which is suggested to be signed by all representatives of the Conference, inter alia, recognizes the necessity to deepen cooperation in many spheres and coordinate actions for the good of Carpathians. “The essence of these actions should be the establishment of closer inter-state, regional and trans-border cooperation in economic, social, scientific and cultural dimension for the macro-region to represent single development vision on the European forum,” the draft document reads.
The document specifies also that national parliaments can play an important role in reaching this aim by establishing Carpathian network of parliamentary cooperation.
Particularly, the suggested text of the bill supports “establishment of transnational operational program of European territorial cooperation for the territory of Carpathian Euroregion for 2014-2020 that would base on the “Carpathian horizon 2020” Strategy”. It was added that the abovementioned program “should encompass all territories claiming their involvement, even those that currently are not participants of the Strategy”.
The draft declaration stresses also that “the main aim of all joint actions should be the creation of European macro-regional development strategy for all Carpathians, involving all interested countries and regions”.