Following the Luxembourg Presidency of the Council of the EU (2nd half of 2015) and its proposal to create a new legal tool for cross-border cooperation, a Working Group on innovative solutions to cross-border obstacles was established by Luxembourg and France. The first meeting of the Working Group was held in Vienna on July 5th 2016.
A new section on the MOT's website sets out the issues involved in identifying and resolving obstacles to cross-border cooperation.
To help identify obstacles to investment, the Committee of the Regions has invited the representatives of EU cities and regions to take part in a survey on "Obstacles to investment at local and regional level", the results of which will be presented to the European Commission, the European Parliament and the European Council.
On Thursday 16 June, the MOT attended the third meeting of the Committee of the Regions' interregional group on cross-border cooperation (and EGTCs) chaired by Pavel Branda.
The legislation to strengthen the fight against organised crime, terrorism and the financing adopted on 26 May 2016 provides for the reintroduction in France of required authorisations for any minor leaving the country.
The first report of the European consultation on the obstacles and potential solutions to cross-border cooperation yields some very interesting analyses. A few elements: concerning the profile of the respondents, 84% of them live in a border region and 48% are private individuals.
With 25 years of supporting Interreg programmes for cross-border cooperation to its credit, celebrated in 2015, but aware of the progress that still needs to be made, the Commission initiated a process of identifying the obstacles that remain at the EU's internal land borders.
DG REGIO has just published a 36-page report on the public consultation “Overcoming obstacles in border regions” carried out in autumn 2015.
In the context of the Netherlands Presidency of the Council of the European Union, the House of the Dutch Provinces in Brussels hosted a seminar on 17 March 2016 on cross-border cooperation.
The President of the Alsace-Champagne-Ardenne-Lorraine Region, Philippe Richert, and his first Vice-President, Patrick Weiten, have written to the French President of the Republic. They are asking for 'a strong signal' to be sent at the French-German council of ministers meeting on 7 April in Metz.
On 4 March, the European Commission unveiled its roadmap for a return to the "normal" functioning of the Schengen Area of free movement "by the end of 2016".
The 2016 edition of the Strasbourg-Ortenau Eurodistrict marathon has been cancelled due to "participation by German runners being too low". With a cross-border route (13 km Germany and 29 km in France), it was the only binational marathon in the world.
The "cross-border cooperation" interregional group of the Committee of the Regions, which was set up in July 2015, held its second meeting on 11 February 2016 in Brussels.
Since September 2015, DG REGIO's cross-border cooperation unit has been carrying out a large-scale initiative known as the "Cross-Border Review" aimed at analysing the administrative and legal obstacles that persist along the European Union's internal borders.
Within the framework of its presidency of the EU Council, on 26-27 November 2015, the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg brought together the European ministers responsible for territorial cohesion and urban policy for an informal meeting in Luxembourg. The discussions fed into the conclusions of the Luxembourg presidency, which is proposing actions to facilitate cross-border cooperation within the EU.
At the instigation of the Midi-Pyrénées General Secretariat for Regional Affairs, a working seminar aimed at the decentralised government departments in the regions bordering Spain and Andorra was held on 25 November 2015 in Toulouse to discuss practices and consider new modes of organisation designed to remove the obstacles to French-Spanish-Andorran cooperation.
On 18th November, members of the MOT network gathered at the CGET (General Commission for Territorial Equality) in Saint-Denis, for a meeting of the Technicians’ Platform and the Advisory Committee of the MOT.The Technicians’ Platform looked at plans to put in place during 2016 an online forum for exchanges between members of the network.
The study proposes a critical analysis of EGTCs and emphasises the primordial role of this legal instrument in the development of cross-border cooperation in Europe.
