Brussels, 19/06/2008 (Agence Europe) - The European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) is a new European legal instrument allowing regional and local authorities of different member states to establish cooperation groupings with a legal personality. Such groupings can facilitate crossborder, transnational and interregional cooperation enabling those taking part to deliver transport or health services, for instance. In order to encourage further cooperation within the EGTC framework, the European Commission (DG Regio) and the Committee of the Regions (CoR) organised, in collaboration with the Slovenian EU Council Presidency, in Brussels on Thursday 19 June, a conference entitled “Building a European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation”. To date, 13 member states out of 27 have finalised national provisions for transposing the regulation on EGTC (adopted in July 2006 by the EP and Council). They are: Hungary, the UK, Bulgaria, Portugal, Romania, Greece, Spain, Slovenia, France, Slovakia, Denmark, Lithuania and Estonia. The other member states have said they are working on it. In order to give a little momentum to the process, the commissioner for regional policy, Danuta Hübner, and CoR President Luc Van den Brande have called on these states to implement national EGTC provisions so that all regions and towns may take part.
“The challenges of today ignore borders - and so should the solutions we seek through cohesion policy. That is why I believe today's conference … is so important and so well-timed”, said Danuta Hübner. She said there are 14,300 km of internal borders and nearly a quarter of the EU regions can be described as border regions, hence the need for crossborder, transnational and interregional cooperation. She went on to say: “We have adopted, for 2007-2013, 70 territorial cooperation programmes but, to reap the full benefits of such work over the long term, the EGTC tool is indispensable” as it allows regions to cooperate beyond borders. The commissioner took the view that the advantages of the EGTC were that: (1) it allows members to create a single legal body, using a single set of rules to implement joint initiatives in two or more member states; (2) it allows stakeholders in two or more member states to cooperate on joint initiatives without the need to sign an international agreement needing ratification by their parliaments; (3) it allows the group of member states to respond directly to calls for projects launched by EU territorial programmes and to act as the single managing authority for them; and (4) the EGTC may be used in areas other than Structural Funds, as, for example, for research and development programmes, and for strengthening cooperation with neighbouring countries such as Croatia, Norway or Ukraine. Ms Hübner pointed out, however, that, in order to achieve such potential, member states should take adequate measures to ensure this regulation is implemented under national law. She assured them of the Commission's support. She stressed that there must be more momentum, citing examples of France/Belgium, Spain/Portugal, Slovenia/Hungary EGTCs. She went on to conclude by expressing gratitude to the CoR for the role it has played in setting up the EGTCs.
“Borders are a thing of the past! We have a 27-member Union and there is no reason to say that something stops at the borders of Europe”, CoR President Luc Van den Brande went on to say. The EGTC is an “instrument, a notion. It is in the mind. Countries that are not neighbours can also cooperate in this framework”, he continued, citing by way of example the fact that, during the evening of Wednesday 18 June, the creation of an EGTC between Poland and Spain had been envisaged. The Committee present pointed out that the idea of the EGTC had appeared in 2001 and was launched on 1 August 2007. In passing, he noted that the Committee of the Regions is the “place where there is not only an official register of EGTCs but also recognition of them”. Luc Van den Brande was delighted that two EGTC groupings - Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai in French and Belgian Flanders and Esztergom-Sturovo in Hungary and Slovakia - are up and running. “The EGTC will help to get rid of red tape and enable partners to realise joint projects that meet public needs”, he concluded.
The Slovenian minister for local government and regional policy, Ivan Zagar, stressed that such a framework allowed partnerships to be mobilised at local and regional level. The Slovenian Republic has long cooperated with its neighbours, for geographical reasons, commented Zagar. He added that the setting up of the Alps/Adriatic EGTC had allowed Slovenia to receive support for EU accession. In March 2008, Slovenia adopted the regulation establishing EGTC, he concluded. (G.B./transl.jl)