At the official opening of the Week, the participants were addressed by Uroš Brežan, Minister of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning, Milan Bogatič, Mayor of the Municipality of Izola , Marko Koprivc, State Secretary at the Ministry of Cohesion and Regional Development, Dr Sławomir Tokarski, Director of the Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy of the European Commission, Fabio Scoccimarro, Regional Commissioner for Environmental Protection, Energy and Sustainable Development of the Region of Friuli Venezia Giulia, and Anžej Frangeš, Acting Director-General of the Directorate for European Affairs at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, who underlined that Slovenia must continue to take advantage of the fact that it is the only country participating with its whole territory in three EU macro-regional strategies. He invited the participants to the 12th annual forum of the EU Strategy for the Danube Region, which will take place on 24 and 25 October in Brdo pri Kranju and will mark the end of the Slovenian Presidency of this macro-regional strategy.

In 2024, Slovenia will chair the EU Strategy for the Alpine Region. A shared feature of both presidencies will be the activities to increase the transfer of knowledge and good practice between different macro-regions and to strengthen the networking of stakeholders. Mr Frangeš also pointed out the importance of the EUSAIR secretariat, i.e. its Facility Point, which is run by Slovenia and provides an opportunity to strengthen cooperation with other countries in the Adriatic-Ionian region and with European institutions.

The Mediterranean Coast and Macro-Regional Strategies Week will offer a varied programme of events focusing on sea, circular economy and cooperation between the four macro-regions: the Alpine, Baltic, Adriatic-Ionian and Danube. It thus represents an example of good practice in cooperation between different macro-regional strategies, a fact which the European Commission did not overlook in its recent report on the implementation of macro-regional strategies. Slovenia is the only country that is involved in three of the four strategies with its whole territory, so it is the right place for all stakeholders to meet. More than 300 participants from 20 European countries will gather in Izola this week. The Mediterranean Coast and Macro-Regional Strategies Week is hosted by the Municipality of Izola and organised in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, the Ministry of Natural Resources and Spatial Planning, the Ministry of Cohesion and Regional Development, the European Commission and other partners.