Dr Ferenc Kékes The President of Baranya County The President of the Alps Adriatic Working Community between 2005 and 2006

After 14 years of full membership, Baranya county takes over presidency in the Alps Adriatic Working Community on 24 November 2004.  

First of all, I would like to, on behalf of Baranya county and all the members of the Working Community, express my acknowledgement to Zala county and President Zoltán Kiss Bódog for their activities and efforts over the past two years. The work performed under the presidency of Zala county in concert with the principles laid down in the organisation’s vision statement contributed to further implementing the reforms adopted by our organisation. During the presidency of Zala county, a major issue was developing the 5th Transport Corridor. In this regard, revitalising the Transport Working Group, that has been just a formal entity for a long period of time, in 2004 could give considerable impetus to implementing this project.

The Alps Adriatic Working Community celebrated its 25th anniversary in 2003. To adequately commemorate this anniversary, Zala county organised a large-scale festivity event and also a very impressive picture book presenting the Alps Adriatic region was published. After activities of more than ten years, Dr Josef Lausegger withdrew as leader of the General Secretariat in 2004. He always was one of the motors of the organisation and his merits are imprescriptible. Dr Hellwig Valentin, the current leader of the General Secretariat has proven to be an excellent fit to follow Dr Lausegger in this position and her strong commitment could be a firm guarantee for the success of our cooperation. At the time of its establishing and also over the almost one decade following the establishment, the working community played a crucial social and political role since it provided floor for the actors standing on the opposite sides in a two-pole world order for starting dialogue and common thinking. By today, the political situation has, due to the activities of several stakeholders including the Alps Adriatic Working Community as well, changed. Except for Croatia, all the seven states represented in the organisation are members of the European Union. Obviously, this positive development implies the issue of making considerations about the future of the working community. Over the past years, we intensively dealt with this topic. For an organisation with five working languages, 17 cooperating regions and 34 different bodies today, moving towards a more flexible and more practice-focussed operation seems to be inevitable.

Many of us may raise the question whether we need the Alps Adriatic Working Community at all. In my judgement, the only and definite answer is ‘yes’. For every state and region in this geographical area, the European Union as well as its common policies and values are determinant. One particular EU policy is the principle of subsidiarity that well justifies the necessity of the Alps Adriatic Working Community and similar interregional working communities since such organisations are structured bottom-up that can efficiently contribute to implementing the economic and social cohesion, to improving the democratic legitimacy and transparency of the European Union and its institutions, as well as to making politics accessible also for the citizens. The experience gained over the past period makes it necessary to emphasize the importance of political and professional involvement since coordinated and efficient performance would not be possible without such involvement. The commitment of the political leaders of the member regions is a prerequisite to the remanence and international acknowledgement of the working community. Neither our different bodies could successfully work in the future without the involvement of professionals with appropriate skills and expertise.

Therefore, I may invite the leaders of the member regions, member Länder and member counties to actively, and possibly even more actively, take part in the future in outlining the roadmap for the Alps Adriatic Working Community and to, by appointing delegates with appropriate professional background, contribute to the efficient operation of our organisation. For the forthcoming two years, the objective of Baranya county is to carry forward the reforms that have already been started and to, in cooperation with the members, find a solution that would, through rationalizing the organisation’s operations, ensure the future existence of the working community at a higher efficiency level and that, consequently, would add to increased international reputation.

For achieving all this, it is, in my opinion, inevitable to, through supporting the own projects of the working community and through jointly taking advantage of the various funds available at the European Union through applications, strengthen project-level cooperation within the organisation,. If we have more efficient PR activities, if we are more active in attracting the attention of the media and in mobilising the citizens living in the area covered by our working community, we can contribute to strengthening the social relations within the Alps-Adriatic area and thus to creating the feeling and attitude of belonging to each other. The Alps Adriatic Working Community, being an organic part of the European Union, shall commit herself to supporting the accession of Croatia, today the only non-EU member, to the European Union.

In providing such support, the most efficient tool could be joint action towards the European Union, with all the interests of the working community represented. In order to accomplish the tasks outlined above, I, acting as the president of the working community, wish to establish close relations not only with the regional leaders representing the political level but also with the persons responsible for the execution of the operative tasks (members of the Commission of Executive Officers, General Secretariat, committee chairmen and heads of the branch offices). I am convinced that, reckon upon your active participation and support, we will succeed in achieving the objectives laid down and in exploiting the opportunities offered by the Alps Adriatic Working Community in this new historical era.

24 November 2004, Pécs.