The Atlantic Arc: A Macro-region in the Making?

The EU Council’s decisions to create macro-regional development strategies for the Baltic Sea, Danube, Adriatic-Ionian and Alpine regions stimulated demands for a similar approach in Europe’s Atlantic zone. Indeed, Atlantic activists, such as the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR), perceive themselves as pioneers of ‘macro-regional’ strategic thinking within the EU (CPMR, 2014), pointing out that the idea of a European ‘Atlantic Arc’ region stretching from southern Portugal to northern Scotland (Figure 11.1) was conceived way back in the 1980s and has, over some 25 years, engendered numerous transnational projects within the permanent institutional framework of an Atlantic Arc Commission (AAC) and an Atlantic Area established by the EU to coordinate its regional policy in the zone. This demand for an Atlantic macro-regional entity on a par with others in the EU has been strongly supported by the European Economic and Social Committee (EESC), the EU Committee of the Regions (CoR) and, most significantly, the European Parliament (EP). However, the EU Commission has hitherto resisted such a comprehensive approach for the Atlantic zone, insisting on the need to first assess developments in the initial macro-regions before adopting the same strategy elsewhere.