Interesting insights here into the multiple and variable geographies of the Atlantic Arc/Area macro-region. Would be great to learn more about the processes through which the boundaries have changed at different points in time as well as the relative importance of functional, political and cultural perspectives.
Atlantic Arc or Atlantic Area? Both and none: A brief by Tamara Guirao CAAC coordinator
There are several definitions of the region encompassing Atlantic Arc. It is a dynamic concept, from the geopolitical, cultural and functional perspective.
As seen in the chart, the first definition of the European Commission (1994) retrieves the Atlantic Arc in a large area which includes the community territories located in the West, in a band ranging from Andalusia to the Sweden via Iceland. This concept has fallen into disuse.
On the other hand, the notion of ‘Atlantic area’ is created in the 1990s to delimit the areas of European territorial cooperation, and does not always correspond with the Atlantic Arc. Following the pattern of the Development Scheme of the European territory document and the first riders in the 1990s, Atlantis and Arcantel as well as INTERREG II C (1998), INTERREG IIIB defines the Atlantic Area…
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Cormac Walsh Research Blog 
Hi, this post has evolved into an article that tries to answer, among other, the questions raised by Regional Europe in the introduction: http://europe-direct-aveiro.aeva.eu/debatereuropa/images/n11/tespinera.pdf