Europe and International

The MOT study for DG REGIO assesses two years of pandemic-related border management and its impact on border regions; and makes recommendations for future management, also taking into account the current revision of the Schengen Borders Code. It updates the report "The effects of COVID-19 induced border closures on cross-border regions," published in January 2021.

In July 2020, the MOT was tasked by DG REGIO to conduct an empirical analysis of the effects of the restrictions imposed by governments in the first wave of the pandemic (March-June 2020) on the inhabitants of border regions. In order to carry out this assignment, the contributions received by members of the MOT network were analysed and, with the help of its European partners (CESCI and the AEBR), more than twenty players on other European borders were questioned. The resulting study, entitled “The effects of COVID-19 induced border closures on cross-border regions”, is now available.