Brussels, 11/01/2012 (Agence Europe) - The year 2012 is the home straight for the European projects funded by the cohesion budget of the EU during the programming period 2007-2013. The Commission's Directorate General for Regional Policy is taking a closer look at its successes in the field of territorial cooperation, publishing information and testimonies on 15 exemplary projects which have made life better for no fewer than 185 million European citizens in border regions (37% of the EU population). With an envelope of €5.7 billion, European territorial cooperation has set no fewer than 53 projects in place along the internal borders of the EU and 10 pre-accession programmes for the period 2007-2013. Amongst other things, they have made it possible for people to receive healthcare treatment in the nearest hospital, even if it is on the other side of a border, and have helped to prevent environmental risks irrespective of borders, or to carry out cross-border waste management.
Territorial cooperation, therefore, has clear European added value, as the European commissioner in charge of regional policy, Johannes Hahn, stressed in the preface to the publication, adding that borders are not barriers. (MD/transl.fl)