The study on "Strengthening the resilience of EU border regions: Mapping risks & crisis management tools and identifying gaps" has just been published by the European Commission (DG REGIO and DG ECHO).
The POCTEFA program has launched a questionnaire for local residents to identify the border obstacles that affect their daily lives.
To influence the debate on the future of EU policies after 2027, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) organized a conference on May 14th in Croatia, in cooperation with the INTERACT program, to draw the attention of decision-makers to the new challenges facing regions and cities, and to discuss the role of European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) in helping to meet these challenges.
The first proposal for a regulation on the European Cross-Border Mechanism ("ECBM"), now renamed "FCBS" ("Facilitating Cross-Border Solutions") dates back to 2018.
Operational since April 11th, the Regulation for an interoperable Europe aims to establish a new framework for cooperation between public administrations, in order to strengthen the exchange and management of data between member countries.
As part of the “B-solutions” initiative supported by DG REGIO, AEBR has published a new compendium presenting analyses of 41 legal and administrative obstacles identified along European borders and their solutions, over the period 2022-2023.
To underline the needs of the border regions and their citizens, the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) launched the European Cross-Border Platform, the successor of the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) Platform. The MOT is fully involved in this process, and sits on the Steering Committee alongside AEBR and CESCI.
MEPs have reiterated their readiness to start interinstitutional negotiations with the EU governments on new Commission proposal inspired by the Parliament´s resolution from September 2023 on new mechanism removing legal and administrative cross-border obstacles and fostering cooperation.They would like to reach an agreement on the proposal before the EU elections in June 2024.
On January 22nd, 2019, France and Germany signed the Franco-German cooperation and integration treaty of Aachen.
With the proposal for a new European tool, the ECBM, now relaunched, the issue of cross-border obstacles is front and center. An opportunity for the MOT to publish a new FOCUS!
Just a few hours before the first meeting of the Quirinal Cross-Border Cooperation Committee (CCF), the Piedmont Region hosted the launch of the "ALCOTraité" Interreg project, which brings together the MOT and the five regions of the Franco-Italian "Alpine" cooperation area.
On October 31st, 2023, the Piedmontese capital hosted the inaugural meeting of the new Cross-Border Cooperation Committee (CCF), a result of the Quirinal Treaty signed two years ago between France and Italy.
This was the wish expressed by the Franco-German Cross-Border Cooperation Committee (CCT) at its second annual meeting on October 23rd, 2023, in Offenburg, chaired by the Secretaries of State for Europe and General Secretaries for Franco-German Cooperation, Anna Lührmann and Laurence Boone.
Stalled for three years in the Council, the legislative proposal for a "mechanism to remove legal and administrative obstacles in a cross-border context", initiated by the European Commission, has now been relaunched. The Parliament asks the Commission to present a revised legislative proposal. The Commission has three months to respond.
The draft opinion of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) on the European Cross-Border Mechanism 2.0 (rapporteur Magali Altounian) was unanimously adopted by the COTER Commission on June 23rd, 2023, with a view to final adoption in October 2023.
Cross-border obstacles affect the daily development of cross-border living areas and services dedicated to their inhabitants. The reduction of these obstacles requires a high degree of cooperation between Member States. That is why, in 2018, the European Commission proposed a tool, the "European Cross-Border Mechanism" (ECBM), dedicated to the resolution of cross-border legal and administrative obstacles. But the Commission's proposal for a regulation on this tool is currently stalled at the Council.
The conference "Living in Border Regions - Tackling the challenges" was organized on April 17th, 2023, in Brussels, by the European Alliance for Cross-Border Citizens (CoR, MOT, AEBR, CESCI). Its objective was to study the possible ways to relaunch the draft regulation on the "European Cross-Border Mechanism" (ECBM).
The Treaty of Aachen mandated the Franco-German Cross-Border Cooperation Committee (CBC) to analyse the impact of legislation on border regions, with the aim of avoiding "the emergence of new legal difficulties in everyday cross-border life".
In the framework of the "b-solutions initiative", AEBR is collecting cases of cross-border obstacles.
At the end of 2022, the Commission published its report "Cross-border public services: CPS inventory analysis and policy recommendations".
The 12th Platform of EGTCs of the European Committee of the Regions was organised on the 24th and 25th of November 2022, within the framework of the Czech Presidency of the EU, in Liberec (CZ) close to the triple border point between Germany, the Czech Republic and Poland.
A new element of this call is that applications are reviewed on a rolling basis with immediate implementation. Deadline to apply is 28 February 2023.
Impact analyses, provided for in the Franco-German Treaty of Aachen and carried out when new standards are drawn up, could make it possible to avoid future obstacles to cross-border cooperation and the complexities of everyday life for the inhabitants of border areas.
On 15 September 2022, the European Parliament approved the resolution "EU border regions: living labs of European integration" prepared by the chair of the regional development committee Younous Omarjee (France).
