“The Carpathian Integration Initiative was launched to bring eight countries together so that our regions and communities can develop coordinated solutions instead of eight different responses to the same problem,” underlined Vitalii Bezghin, Minister for Communities, Territories and Internally Displaced Persons of Ukraine, addressing the Congress on 28 October 2026.
The Minister also called on the delegations to the Congress representing Carpathian countries to support an EU macro-regional strategy for the Carpathians.
In 1993, the Carpathian Euroregion, created based on Council of Europe’s Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation, was established between representatives of regions of five countries in this macro-region. Today eight counties – Austria, the Czech Republic, Hungary, the Republic of Poland, Romania, the Republic of Serbia, the Slovak Republic and Ukraine – discuss how to expand it. The First dedicated Carpathian Summit took place in Bukovel (Ivano-Frankivsk region, Ukraine) in September 2026 with participation of heads of state.
The Congress decided to back the Carpathian Integration Initiative. As a next step, in early 2027 it should support a broad thematic meeting, bringing together local and regional authorities from the Carpathian region as well as governmental institutions to agree on specific co-operation plan to advance cohesion, prosperity and security across state borders. Furthermore, following a thematic debate “The role of regions in transfrontier co-operation” (28 October), the Chamber of Regions of the Congress, has decided to hold an in-depth debate on Europe's macro-regions at its next session, in March 2027.
The Centre of Expertise for Multilevel Governance at the Congress has also expressed its readiness to facilitate exchanges at a more technical and operational level and to provide practical support, consultancy and peer insight for the initiative.
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