Macro-regions are becoming increasingly important in Europe. In particular what is called termed functional-region. Common labour-market, tourism, trade, communication and joint efforts against noise and pollution often characterize such regions.
In terms of production it is usual to talk about the front-runners, the descending and the old-fashion or agrarian regions. In modern Europe, the first category foremost include the so-called Blue Banana, from Manchester in England via the Rhine- and the Rhone-valley into Lombardy with Milan at the other end, and in the middle Frankfurt-am-Maine, the financial capital of Germany.
The Sun-Belt from Toscana to Milan and Lyon to Barcelona and Valencia is another example and often compared to California. The plans are that new technologies, industry independent of raw-materials and new services are going to change this half-peripheral part of Southern Europe into a growth-area number one.
The north-western part of Europe is dominated by a high concentration of people and of big cities and capitals. The systems of transport are highly developed and they all have constant high flow of people and goods.
The peripheries of Europe; from Scotland cross to Ireland via Wales, Cornwall and Bretagne to Andalusia, Sardinia and Sicily have much less people and are close to oceans. The Alpine-Europe is in terms of people dominated by Vienna and Lyon but has several cities with one to two million inhabitants.
The so-called Atlantic Arch runs from southern Ireland to Wales and Cornwall to the Atlantic coast of France, Basque and Galicia in Spain to Portugal. These areas all have traditions as seafarers and a likely heritage Celtic music and culture. Today is, however, cooperation against oil-pollution from tankers in distress or damaged, much more important.
In Germany, regional researchers talk about the two-river region with one arm from Bruxelles, Köln, the Ruhr, Hannover and to Berlin and Warsaw, while the other stretches from Dortmund and Kassel towards Leipzig and into the Sleschien part of Poland and from there to Czechia. In the Baltic Sea the previous leader of the Social-democratic Party of Germany, Björn Engholm, has started to talk about a new Hansa-cooperation.
By Odd Iglebaek, Editor