Policy and tools

BRIDGEforEU: The Council of the EU and Parliament reach agreement

January 2025

On December 16th, the Council of the EU and the European Parliament reached a provisional agreement on the new BRIDGEforEU instrument aimed at removing administrative and legal obstacles in border regions, representing a major step forward for Europe's border territories!

Key points of BRIDGEforEU:

The creation of cross-border coordination points to study the resolution of each obstacle at the border and provide a concrete solution.
A cross-border facilitation tool to standardise procedures and speed up solutions.
The creation of a public register of obstacles, collecting data from Member States on cross-border issues at land and sea borders.

Sandro Gozi MEP, vice-president of the MOT, hailed this as an ‘unprecedented victory for cross-border regions’. The regulation will make it possible to ‘build bridges between territories and communities, contribute to dynamic labour markets, facilitate access to essential cross-border public services and increase economic and social cohesion’. Parliament estimates that these obstacles represent ‘an annual loss of 457 billion euros at EU level’..

Remember that the MOT has been working on this project with its European partners for over ten years!
The next step will be the official adoption of the regulation.

More info:
https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_24_6486

The article published by Localtis Banque des Territoires : https://www.banquedesterritoires.fr/faire-tomber-les-obstacles-transfrontaliers-un-nouveau-reglement-en-voie-dadoption