The European Parliament’s Committee on Regional Development (REGI) discussed the challenges and successes of the Interreg programme on Tuesday 28 February in the presence of the European Commission.
For 2021–2027, 84 of the 86 Interreg programmes are already “up and running”, said a Commission representative. Despite the delays and doubts raised by Pascal Arimont (EPP, Belgian), he gave assurances that the simplifications that were introduced would allow for a rapid implementation.
Furthermore, the European Commission defended the “very unique potential [of Interreg programmes] to facilitate enlargement” as an introduction to the functioning of EU policies for candidate countries such as Moldova, Ukraine or the Western Balkans.
However, the representative acknowledged that Interreg is still facing challenges such as the high administrative capacity requirements for programmes in remote areas or at external borders, the “legal and administrative” barriers in the daily life of citizens, as well as the need to improve labour market cooperation.
In addition, the interruption of programmes with Russia and Belarus has placed the European regions involved in these programmes in difficulty. Bronis Ropė (Greens/EFA, Lithuanian) called on the European Commission to “seek alternative solutions on how to replace these projects, maybe using a remote cooperation mechanism [or] replacing the partners with Moldova or Ukraine”.
The European Commission noted that Member States have been allowed to complete projects “on their side of the border” and that additional solutions “based on the idea that cooperation money should go to cooperation” remain under discussion.
Finally, the representative welcomed the European Parliament’s proposal to relaunch the negotiations on the European Cross-Border Mechanism (ECBM) (see EUROPE 13022/5) and expressed his institution’s determination to have it adopted “before the end of this Commission”. This mechanism, the institution insists, would help reduce the legal and administrative barriers faced by citizens, particularly in border regions. (Original version in French by Hélène Seynaeve)