Mainstreaming the border dimension in European legislation, setting up cross-border foundations, gathering data on cross-border workers, removing thematic concentration, better coordinating national laws: the Committee of the Regions (CoR) brought forward a whole raft of proposals for reinvigorating European territorial cooperation in an opinion adopted unanimously in plenary session in Brussels on Wednesday 4 July.
Firstly, CoR members reiterated their call for a significant increase in EU financial support for European territorial cooperation because of its very high European value added. They argue that territorial cooperation, embodied in the Interreg programmes, must not suffer as a result of the United Kingdom’s leaving the EU.
Money is not everything, however: the content of the cooperation also has to change. The CoR, therefore, call for account to be taken of the impact of each and every European legislative act relating to border regions and cross-border activities. It also believes that thematic concentration should not apply to territorial cooperation programmes in order to allow greater flexibility in negotiations. On the other hand, they would like investment to be consistent with the thematic priorities of the macroregional strategies.
On this last point, the CoR members take the view that mutual trust, the basis of all cross-border cooperation and currently still lacking, has to be built. To do this, they recommend setting up cross-border foundations to encourage cooperation in various cultural and sporting events that directly target citizens.
The plethora of proposals include: - having Eurostat, the European statistical office, gather reliable information on cross-border traffic; - strengthening the role of the Commission in coordinating implementation of EU law among the member states; - highlighting multilingualism in thematic concentrations; - adopting new legislation that would allow the law of a neighbouring state to apply in specific projects. This last proposal features among the Commission initiatives for the forthcoming multiannual financial framework, 2021-2027 (see EUROPE 12014).
The Committee of the Regions is scrutinising the proposals for the next cohesion policy. Marie-Antoinette Maupertuis (EA, France) will specifically monitor the regulation on European territorial cooperation (see EUROPE 12038). (Original version in French by Pascal Hansens)