The discussions in progress on the future of the cohesion policy have foregrounded the importance of obtaining the points of view of local stakeholders.
In this context, the seventh edition of the OPEN DAYS, European week of regions and cities, which recently ended in Brussels was a great success, with more than 6000 participants from all over Europe and close to 125 seminars, workshops and debates. These included nine workshops devoted directly to cross-border cooperation or to the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC), which is evidence of the strong interest of European regions and cities in this topic.
In order for the process of European integration to be shared and supported by the citizens to an even greater extent, it has to bring about practical responses and in visible results. In the cross-border territories, services to the citizens are in fact a very good example of this, as the presentations at our workshop showed (see article on this page) in areas such as transport, health, training or issues of fiscal solidarity.
Nevertheless, practical actions in a bi- or even tri-national context are still complex undertakings today.
Our workshop attempted to show how local cross-border territories can benefit from the process of European integration and what common answers can be provided in order to meet these needs in terms of services to the citizens. The examples presented raised key questions: How can common services be funded on a long-term basis and how can the results of projects be sustained? How can the citizens be involved in this process?
The accounts also showed that the determination of the local stakeholders to move forward in this direction is very strong and that appropriate means must be identified at Community level to meet their needs.
Source: Cross-border news, No. 53, October 2009
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