The meeting was held in the County Palace in Varazdin, bringing together representatives of the alliance members - the Austrian provinces of Carinthia, Styria and Burgenland, the Slovenian union of municipalities, which includes all municipalities and towns in Slovenia, the Hungarian county of Vas, and the Croatian counties of Koprivnica-Krizevci, Krapina-Zagorje, Medjimurje, Primorje-Gorski Kotar, Istria, and Varazdin.
The chairman of the Alps-Adriatic Alliance and head of Varazdin County, Radimir Cacic, said that five million people live in the area covered by the Alliance who are connected by similar education and economic systems and centuries of living and working together.
"This is an excellent foundation, but we need to change the form of action. We need to find a form that will make it possible for us to participate in EU projects as quickly and as strongly as possible using that money and those projects in the areas which we represent," Cacic said.
Andreja Metelko-Zgombic, state secretary for European affairs at the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs, said that the Croatian counties maintained and developed a very fruitful cooperation with neighbouring regions in various areas, building a good foundation for economic development and cultural cooperation.
The conference was organised to mark the 40th anniversary since the establishment of what was then known as the Alps-Adriatic Working Community. With Croatia's accession to the European Union in mid-2013, the Working Community became an alliance of regions.
The Alliance's Secretary General Thomas Pseiner of Carinthia described the Alliance as an organisation that "had gone beyond the boundaries of different divisions at a time before we had European cohesion instruments."
"In these 40 years, the circle of members has changed, and the tasks and the focus of work are also changing in an organisation that seeks to adapt to developments in Europe," Pseiner said.