Chaves-Verín Eurocity

History of cross-border co-operation in the area    

Since the 1990s, Galicia and Northern Portugal have implemented many joint cooperation strategies. The coordination of these strategies at the regional level, and the interlinking of the two economies has been facilitated by the two countries’ entry into the then European Community in 1986.

Galicia has become one of Portugal’s most important economic partners, and the same is true in the opposite direction; and cooperation has been made possible by the European common market and investment in infrastructure by the European Union.

These different strategies have been coordinated at the interregional level with the establishment of the “Working Community” in 1991, which has since transformed first into a Euroregion and subsequently into the EGTC “Galicia–North Portugal” in 2008. These cooperation bodies at the regional level have been completed by local cross-border governance structures with the creation of a city network in the form of an association, “Eixo Atlantico”. Chaves and Verín are involved in the governance of the EGTC in their capacity as local authorities situated in the cross-border Tâmega valley. Collaboration between the two municipal councils and their geographical proximity contributed to the creation of the Chaves-Verín Eurocity in 2007 and the adoption on the EGTC status in 2013.