Brussels, 12/06/2007 (Agence Europe) - The European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC), the new EU scheme to make it easier to set up cross-border, transnational and interregional projects and manage them effectively, is suffering delays in its implementation. That is what Committee of the Regions (CoR) President Michel Delebarre and Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Hübner told the CoR plenary session on Thursday 7 June. European capitals were urged to put in place the necessary legal procedures to allow the programme to begin, as planned, on 1 August, but no member state is likely to be ready on time. “This is definitely bad news,” Ms Hübner said. Mr Delebarre wondered, “Do member states want this instrument?” He went on to say that “National authorities have to meet deadlines”.
Ms Hübner said that many potential EGTC projects had already been identified, including a hospital in Limburg on the Dutch-German border, and another on the French-Spanish border. She pointed out that EGTCs can run for unlimited periods and involve little or no red tape once set up, and that in addition to local and regional authorities, EGTC partners can include member states or any other public body. EP Regulation (EC) 1082/2006 of 5 July 2006 on an EGTC was published in the Official Journal of 31/7/2006 (see, among others, EUROPE 9231).
Ms Hübner and Mr Delebarre launched their call on the same day as the CoR was holding a conference, entitled “The EGTC: new impetus for territorial cooperation in Europe?”, the aim of which was to assess the scheme's potential and provide examples of initiatives that could get underway once the EGTC scheme became operational on 1 August 2007, said a CoR press release, which added that the report was available on its site http: //http://www.cor.europa.eu (gb)