WKKMartin Wagner was invited to join a delegation representing the „NAAN – New Alpe Adria Network“ in Bruxelles May 21-23, 2025. The network founded in 2007 comprises regional and national chambers of – depending upon organization in the respective country – commerce, industry, crafts and agriculture of Carinthia (Wirtschaftskammer Kärnten) and Styria (Wirtschaftskammer Steiermark) in Austria, from Italy the chambers of commerce of Trieste-Gorizia and Pordenone-Udine, the regional association of the chambers of commerce of Veneto and the Handelskammer Bozen, from Slovenia and Croatia the national chambers as well the regional Pula county chamber. This region comprises about ten million inhabitants and almost a million companies.
The NAAN region is not only culturally and historically interesting and exciting (just think about how many times the borders have changed in that region over the last 150 years or so), but of course also with respect to economic development opportunities: The region comprises two national capitals, several international ports and numerous well-known scientific institutions and universities. Some of the regions in the NAAN area are amongst the leading ones in the EU with respect to, e.g., GDP per capita, whereas others still are in earlier stages of economic convergence. With globalization under stress, a process of continuing and fostering “europization”, i.e., the implementation of many important policies to remove remaing non-tariff barriers to trade and restrictions to factor mobility across Europe, may be a particularly important strategy to increase economic dynamism in Europe. One that Europe has in its own hands! Given the diversity of the region, with all the potential for cooperation that this diversity entails, the NAAN region has the potential to become a showcase for moving forward with European integration.
The delegation met with EU Commissioner Magnus Brunner and several EU delegates, and gave a press conference at the new House of the Austrian Economy in Brussels AT60. Martin Wagner prepared an impulse paper on the demographic challenges for the regions for this occasion.
Der Beitrag „NAAN“ Network — Economic Developments and Cooperations in the Alpe Adria Region erschien zuerst auf University of Klagenfurt.