18. November, 2019
SARAJEVO, 12-13 November 2019
The 11th meeting of the Thematic Steering Group for Pillar 3 – “Environmental Quality” of the EU Strategy for the Adriatic-Ionian Region (EUSAIR) took place in Sarajevo, Bosnia and Herzegovina on 12-13 November 2019 and was attended by representatives of 5 participating countries of the EUSAIR and the European Commission (DG REGIO). As North Macedonia will became an official member of EUSAIR, their representatives will as well participate in the future TSG3 meetings.

Initially a recap of the past activities and achievements was summed up. The focus was on establishing stronger cooperation with macro-regional strategies, including young population in Pillar activities and implementation of the Strategy as well as on inter-pillar cooperation. This was also shown in the video premiere of the outcomes of the Mediterranean Coast and Macro-regional Strategies week 2019.
A report was provided on state of the art and inputs from TSG 3 members on transformation of project concepts into bankable project, which shall be concluded by the end of 2020, with special attention given to developing process of the project concept ICZM&MSP.
The highlight of the meeting was in finding out to be quite advanced regarding Monitoring and evaluation process of the EUSAIR macro-regional strategy in the framework of EUSAIR Facility Point project’s work package 3, in comparison to other TSGs, since their  Pillar related study is already being revised.
During the 2nd day of the meeting, the participants were informed on the state of play of cross-pillar project idea, reviewed the content of TSG3 Annual report 2019 and agreed on Activity plan of possible TSG 3 events for end 2019 and 2020. Regarding the upcoming 5th EUSAIR Forum in Belgrade the main theme was presented and suggestions for the parallel session of Pillar 3 were proposed. However this discussion will continue after the officially received information on the programme and thematics of the Forum. 

The meeting proved an important step forward done by TSG3 and despite poor attendance this time, it is achieving its set goals.