The member states of the Alpine region face common challenges and opportunities. There are various programmes with respect to energy efficiency and the use of renewable energy systems in enterprises running in parallel with similar targets without transnational coordination. As a consequence, there is great potential for the exchange of information and experiences to adjust and improve existing activities, on the one hand. On the other hand, these parallel activities consume unnecessary resources.

The European Union launched the macro-regional strategy “EU Strategy for the Alpine Region” (EUSALP). The Notification of the Commission (see ”Mitteilung der Kommission”, 2015) sets the target to provide the framework to tackle the challenges in the fields of economy, infrastructure and mobility, en-ergy as well as protection of the environment and resources with innovative initiatives. According to this notification, the actions should be done through close transnational cooperation among the states and regions as well as among non-governmental actors. The study at hand concerns one of the three thematic focus points in the notification of the Commission: integrative, ecologic frameworks and renewable, reliable energy solutions for the future.

There is one cross-cutting target for the development of a macro-regional governance model for the Alpine region: improvement of the cooperation and coordination of activities. The mentioned thematic focus and the cross-cutting target are combined and elaborated in this study.