When talking about European cohesion policy it is impossible not to talk about cooperation between different countries and regions of the Union.
This is because cross-border cooperation represents one of the most concrete pillars of European integration, even in a historical phase marked by profound geopolitical transformations and new economic priorities for Europe.
As Matteo Luigi Bianchi, vice-president of the European Committee of the Regions and deputy director of the National Association of Italian Municipalities (Anci) – Lombardy, explains, “integration really takes place across the borders between states, through policies that connect territories and people”.
To preserve the most recognizable characteristic of European cohesion of being based on the needs of territories, instruments such as Interreg – the program that finances cooperation between cities and regions of different member states – represent the key to making local communities across the borders laboratories of true European integration.
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Cooperation across borders
It is Bianchi himself, starting from his ten-year experience as mayor of Morazzone – a town in the province of Varese, a few kilometers from the border with Switzerland – who underlines how bottom-up cooperation can be concretely built from the territories that overlook non-EU countries.
“Almost 80 thousand people from Lombardy cross the Swiss border every day to work, returning home in the evening”, he explained, speaking of a “soft border” between the EU and Switzerland, where the daily life of cross-border communities is now deeply integrated.
Cultural, linguistic and economic relations have long gone beyond the purely administrative dimension. For this reason, relations between Brussels and Bern cannot be entrusted exclusively to institutional agreements.
The request to involve local authorities and regions in a more structured way from one side of the border to the other – both between Italy and Switzerland and in other EU countries with their external neighbors – is the spark that led to stimulating a new approach within the European Committee of the Regions, the EU consultative body representing local and regional authorities.
Taking inspiration from the contact group created between the European Union and the United Kingdom after Brexit, Bianchi is convinced that “better developing a relationship from a local and regional perspective with the Swiss Confederation means deepening all aspects of the daily life of cooperation”.
The reference to the EUSALP Alpine macroregion – i.e. the EU strategy operational since 2016 to strengthen cooperation between the regions of the Alpine arc – is the most tangible example of territorial integration capable of going beyond national borders.
In this context, Switzerland participates fully in common strategies together with EU member states, contributing to defining shared policies on mobility, sustainability and economic development.
For Bianchi, if true European integration is built above all through a bottom-up process, the possible centralization of cohesion policy in the future post-2027 EU budget is too big a risk to take, because it could weaken the territorial dimension on which European cooperation is rooted.
“We must instead create local trust in European institutions and local institutions”, is the exhortation of the vice-president of the European Committee of the Regions.
Between flexibility and territories
Despite the controversies over the new approach that will revolutionize the EU’s multiannual budget, the European Commission has already made it clear that Interreg will remain an essential tool to accompany both the member countries of the Union and the European partners that are not part of it – such as Switzerland, in fact – towards ever closer territorial cooperation.
The proposal presented by the EU executive provides a budget of 10.2 billion euros for Interreg in the period 2028-2035.
A figure which, according to Simona Pohlova, representative of the Commission department responsible for the Interreg programme, “demonstrates how territorial cooperation continues to be strategic” despite the many pressures.
Programs along the external borders allow local administrations of neighboring countries to gain direct experience in the shared management of European policies.
This is why there are strong calls from the territories to adapt European programs to the specific needs on site.
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The Hungarian example
This is explained, for example, by Nikoletta Horváth, head of Interreg programs at the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade. “Borders are the laboratories of European integration, where the success of cooperation depends on the ability to build trust between different institutions, partners and territories.”
Hungary runs seven cross-border cooperation programmes, including those with Serbia and Ukraine, and has developed a highly specialized administrative structure over the years. As Horváth says, “we have created a sort of hub of knowledge and skills for the communities” involved in Interreg projects.
Most of the staff involved have been working in the territorial cooperation sector for over fifteen years and this provides an exponential capacity in orienting projects to specific needs on site.
For Horváth, one of the central issues of cohesion policy concerns maintaining Interreg programs in a logic that is neither too sectoral nor excessively standardized. Each border area has different and very often non-repeatable economic, social and geographical characteristics.
For this reason, European policies, although financing projects within a single framework, must guarantee “broad operational freedom and tailor-made tools, capable of responding to local needs”.
It is the same Hungarian experience that shows how the direct involvement of municipalities, regions, macro-regions and non-governmental organizations can make program management more effective.
Among the most significant examples are the projects developed along the Hungarian-Serbian border and the support systems for small and medium-sized enterprises activated with Croatia.
Particular attention was also paid to the removal of administrative and legal obstacles that continue to limit the full functioning of the Single Market in border areas.
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The direct relationship with citizens
The Danish MEP Kristoffer Storm (Danmarksdemokraterne, of the European Conservatives and Reformists group) is on the same line of thought in Brussels. Speaking about the importance of Interreg programs and cohesion policy, Storm places particular emphasis on the need to demonstrate to citizens the concrete usefulness of projects financed by the EU.
While recognizing the value of cooperation in the Öresund-Kattegat-Skagerrak area (between Denmark and Sweden), one of the most integrated regions in Europe, the MEP invites European institutions to focus more on initiatives perceived as priorities by local communities.
These include those relating to healthcare, transport and economic growth. “Projects must show a clear value for the area in which they operate”, explains Storm thus the need to remain close to the real needs of European citizens, especially when talking about peripheral and border areas.
“People don’t know enough about Interreg”, is the alarm raised by the MEP, which shines a light on the risk that European funds are perceived as resources always destined for the same subjects, without real involvement of small organisations, associations and local communities.
In short, trust and cooperation remain the essential pillars of cohesion, which in cross-border areas can have a decisive impact on solving problems and responding to common needs.
But only if it starts from the daily life of the border regions, where Europe can build its own more concrete integration.
