The Significance of Cross-Border
Cooperation and the Need for
Territorial Evidence
ESPON seminar: A World without Borders:
Refugees, Cooperation and Territories
Luxembourg, 8 December 2015
Alfonso Alcolea Martínez
European Committee of the Regions
ALFONSO ALCOLEA [email protected]
Europe without borders?
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Europe without borders?
Former checkpoint between
Frankfurt am Oder and Słubice
© A.Alcolea, 2008
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© A. Alcolea, 2008
Europe without borders?
Nova Gorica railway station
Border between Italy and Slovenia, till 2004 and today
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From a fragmented Europe…
 Disparities EU28
European Commission
6th Cohesion Report
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From a fragmented Europe…
Impact of the crisis in 2010
GDP growth in real terms
6th Cohesion Report
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…to a polycentric
interconnected Europe
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The role
of the CoR
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The CoR

The EU assembly of local and regional authorities
•
350 members and alternates

Mission
•
•
•
•
Adopting consultative opinions
Bringing the EU closer to the citizens
Promoting multi-level governance, subsidiarity and crossborder cooperation
Meeting point of cities and regions
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The CoR

Strength based on the expertise
 The CoR gathers politicians acting on the ground

BUT it is a political assembly
•
•

Just a small fraction of LRAs is represented
Not all the members are backed by a public
administration
Compensation: Networks and platforms
•
•
Subsidiarity, Europe 2020, European Entrepreneurial
Regions, EGTCs and cross-border
Factual input (expertise) and wider participation
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Political messages of the CoR

The ETC is a success story of the European integration
•
•

Paradigm shift  From cooperation to integration
•
•

Immediate European added value
Empowerment of cities and regions
 Local democracy, subsidiarity and multi-level governance
From joint projects in the territory to a joint project of territory
Territorial agenda, place-based approach, functional areas
Need of cross-border evidence
•
•
Need to know the borders and what happens at the border
The contents of the 6th Cohesion report were insufficient
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The need for
territorial evidence
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Current status
Knowledge gaps
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
Territorial

Quantitative

Qualitative

EU in-house
Territorial gaps


The EU borders are heterogeneous:

Political situation

Constitutional arrangements

Administrative system

Resources allocated to CBC
So far, ESPON is the only source of knowledge providing a
comprehensive knowledge  But there is not a complete
and harmonised overview of the situation of the borders
ALFONSO ALCOLEA [email protected]
Quantitative gaps
3 main problems:
1. Data
2. Data
and
3. Data
Selection, dimension, collection, harmonisation, update…
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Quantitative gaps
Example:
The unemployment gap
at the HU-RO border
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•
•
•
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Which concept of
‘unemployed’
What level of data
collection?
Which frequency of
update?
Can we measure the
cross-border flows?
Etc
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Qualitative gaps

Which obstacles to cross-border cooperation?


Open or closed borders?
Single Market
 Free movement  Students, workers…
 Cross-border structures  Like the EGTC
 European convention  Lux initiative

Ongoing consultation of the European Commission

The EGTCs are very good laboratories of the Single Market
at cross-border level, where they exist

Could we define a qualitative index of cross-border
integration?
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Concrete gaps
© Michael Cramer MEP
Identification of bottlenecks
The example of the ‘missing links’ in railway transport
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Gaps in the EU programmes

INTERREG is the main tool

25 years of success

Simplification
Faster financial procedures


Is thematic concentration good
for CBC?
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Gaps in the EU programmes

There is room for improvement


Little use of the CBC in Operational Programmes
Many EU programmes keep the logic of ‘national envelopes’

Bottlenecks identified by the EGTCs

Why not a clause of automatic cross-boder integration of EU
funds?
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Actions
of the CoR
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CoR actions on CBC
Bureau declaration on 25 years of INTERREG
2/9/2015, Luxembourg



INTERREG as a success story of EU integration
Trust building
Simplification
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CoR actions on CBC
Opinion on new instruments for CBC
(N. Dobroslavic)

Support to the proposal of the LUX
Presidency

The CoR has found evidence of need of a
European Convention for CBC

Empowerment of LRAs  They take the
initiative
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CoR actions on CBC
Joint conference
Future of CBC
on
the
12-13/11/2015, Brussels

Co-organised by the CoR, the
EC, the Congress and the
AEBR

Important stocktaking by the
cross-border community
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CoR actions on CBC
‘The Future of Cohesion Policy post 2020’

Project consisting in a study
and a series of workshops

Functional areas and crossborder cooperation identified
as main issue

3 March 2016 final
conference

CoR own-initiative opinion
foreseen
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CoR actions on CBC
TIA – Territorial Impact Assessment

Add the territorial dimension to the Impact Assessment,
considering the outcome of legislation and policies in different
regions

TIA is a priority for the CoR and an issue of inter-institutional
cooperation

ESPON has been the main partner of the CoR in all the TIA
related activities  ESPON Quick Scan tool used for milk
quotas, Natura 2000 and other TIA exercises

The CoR is organising the inter-institutional trainings
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Conclusions

The CBC is gaining momentum in the EU
agenda

Which impact of the refugee crisis?

Which follow-up to the impetus given by the
LUX Presidency?

The CoR has improved its stance in CBC and
will do more in the future
ALFONSO ALCOLEA [email protected]
Thank you very much!
European Committee of the Regions
Directorate C - Consultative works
Alfonso Alcolea Martínez
Administrator – Cross-border cooperation and EGTCs
Web: www.cor.europa.eu/egtc
E-mail: [email protected]
Twitter: @EGTCPlatform
Facabook: EGTC
ALFONSO ALCOLEA [email protected]