The parting shot was given in mid-1991 by the chambers of industry and commerce of the Rhine-Main area with the staging of the so-called Rhine-Main Forums. The aim of these events was to permit an exchange of opinion among leading figures from industry, influential politicians, and the UVF on necessary joint measures and efforts (especially in the field of economic development) to safeguard and strengthen the position of the Rhine-Main area in the intensifying competition among regions.

    A further initiative to improve regional cooperation was also launched in 1991 by the Oberbürgermeister of Frankfurt, Offenbach, Darmstadt, Mainz, and Wiesbaden and the UVF. With the adoption of the `Rhine-Main Declaration', in which commitment was expressed to `solidary collaboration among all local authorities' and - with the establishment of working groups - to relevant regional functional areas such as transport planning, economic development, and the provision of housing.

    In mid-1994, after the financial problems confronting the City of Frankfurt had become increasingly evident and the search for solutions more and more urgent, a new round of events was initiated. A start was made with the Rhine-Main Conference called by the State of Hesse in collaboration with the Länder of Bavaria and Rhineland-Palatinate. Whilst the focus of this event was on large-space regional development issues, the subsequent initiatives staged by the large daily newspapers (the FAZ `Rhine-Main Economic Talks' in 1994; the Frankfurter Rundschau `Umland Debate' in 1995) were primarily concerned with concrete intra-regional problems and how to solve them. Of the various proposals and demands put forward at these discussions, the following dominated the debate:

		As a `short-term' solution, the improvement of local authority financial equalization to favour the City of Frankfurt (see section I.2). Frankfurt addressed its demand to the government of Hesse, pointing to the high costs of the central-place facilities provided by the city. Leading Frankfurt actors were already considering entering a constitutional complaint. A second demand also made by Frankfurt for regional financial equalization triggered a broad debate on the objective definition of `central-place facilities' or `joint functions', which in Frankfurt's opinion ought not to be financed by one city alone but by the regional community. However, representatives of the umland Gemeinden were united in their opinion that, if facilities were to be jointly financed, the parties involved should be entitled to a say in their conception. A study is to be conducted by the UVF to find out whether and to what extent the imbalance often complained about in the distribution of burdens and benefits between Frankfurt and the surrounding Gemeinden really exists, and `how finance really flows'.
		A return of regional planning to the local level, demanded by leading local representatives of the Social Democrats and Christian Democrats. They proposed that responsibility for regional planning should be retransferred from the state level of the Regierungspräsident to the Kreise and Gemeinden, in whose responsibility it had normally been until 1980. It was suggested that the Planungsgemeinschaften, regional planning associations, which had been abolished in 1980, should be revived, but covering different territories and vested with different powers.
		The introduction of a Rhine-Main Kreis suggested by a member of the Frankfurt City Planning Authority, (66) to comprise the present cities and Landkreise of the Rhine-Main area. This Kreis would fit into the existing administrative structures, and its institutions would be the same as those of the other Kreise. In addition to the `classical functions' of a Kreis, the Rhine-Main Kreis would take over the task of land-use planning for its territory after abolition of the UVF.
		The replacement of the UVF by a new regional union taking account of the actual interaction area of the region and provided with more comprehensive powers. This concept is favoured by many of the affected parties, including leading UVF representatives, but with differences of opinion on its concrete form. There is, however, general agreement that such an authority should be given regional planning powers for its territory. In the view of former UVF director Behrendt, a regional local authority association should also have responsibility for waste management, sewage supervision, supralocal sporting and leisure facilities, and economic development, and should cover the entire economic region from Mainz to Aschaffenburg and from Friedberg to Darmstadt (see section II.2). Unlike the UVF, an authority with such dimensions should have the possibility of putting its planning ideas into practice, and - through local government financial equalization - should have its own financial resources. (67)
		The most radical concept for this regional Verband model has been advanced by the present director of the UVF, Alfons Faust, who would like to see the setting up of regional unions accompanied by the abolition of existing Landkreise and Regierungspräsidien, with their functions being transferred to Gemeinden, the region, and the Land. This would once again provide `a clear, three-tier governmental structure'. (68) This restructuring would also be the task of Land legislation.

    The Land registers such comprehensive new approaches with scepticism. Like their predecessors in the early seventies (see section III.1.1), it is believed that these initiatives will `get stranded in the crossfire of local political interests'. (69) `Sectoral developments' and `individual projects' are therefore preferred. There thus appears to be no immediate prospect for any organizational restructuring of the Rhine-Main area going beyond the stage of mental constructs.