20. November, 2018
Ministry of Tourism of the Republic of Croatia hosted the 9th Meeting of the Thematic Steering Group for Pillar 4 – Sustainable Tourism, under the EU Strategy for the Adriatic and Ionian Region (EUSAIR), from Nov.13th to 14th , held back to back with the International Workshop the “Cultural Routes of the Olive Tree” as a model for Europe’s values, heritage and sustainable development, from Nov. 15th to 16th 2018 at Mali Lošinj.

The 9th Meeting of the Thematic Steering Group for Pillar 4 was attended in person by representatives of Bosnia and Herzegovina, Croatia, Greece, Montenegro, Slovenia and Serbia, and representatives of Italy and EC were present through Skype. Participants adopted operational conclusions of the 8th meeting of TSG for Pillar 4 (TSG4) recapitulating the decisions taken and state of play of implementing the Operational Conclusions of the 8th TSG4. Pillar Coordinators.

Cooperations with other initiatives and institutions were presented such as Blue Med, the 3rd Joint EUSAIR Fora meeting in Split and the state of play of the AI-NURREC project. RCC representative presented the follow up on the project “Triple P Tourism in SEE: Promotion, Policy, and Pilots” funded by DG NEAR. The meeting was also attended by representatives of Council of Europe, Routes 4 U, who presented their initiatives. Representatives of PANORAMED presented the possibilities for joint projects.

Pillar Coordinators, TSG members and EC representative discussed the labelling of projects and, further on, the feedback of country members on EUSAIR national tourism strategies, common priorities and possible actions of individual TSG 4 members. Discussion was also held on the cross cutting actions regarding SMEs development, research and innovation as well as the capacity building. Green mapping, Western Silk Road, cross pillar projects were discussed, as well as EU Year of Cultural Heritage 2018.

Facility Point Lead Partner presented the state of play of the implementation of the EUSAIR Facility Point and the “Facility Point Plus Project” with the latest info and next steps.Representatives of ADRION Programme presented their further actions.

Information on the Montenegrin Chairmanship was presented together with all initiatives connected to the 4th EUSAIR Forum and the possible contribution of the TSG 4 regarding the programme and events related to the TSG IV such as round table on tourism.

TSG 4 members were also asked to present interesting tourism/culture related events and other pertinent developments relevant for the work of TSG 4. All participants were invited to attend the event in The Republic of Montenegro and to support actively tourism related actions within the 4th EUSAIR Forum. Back to back with the TSG4 meeting the International Workshop the “Cultural Routes of the Olive Tree” was held and within it the TSG4 actions have been presented with the topics connected to priorities concerning sustainable tourism.

CoE activities and projects related to the development of cultural routes were presented connected strongly with TSG4 priorities on sustainable tourism, mapping and joint promotion of existing macro-regional routes, further development of cultural tourism establishing synergies between macro-regional routes and local communities.