Regional and Urban Policy

Established in the context of the Commission’s 2017 Communication on border regions, b-solutions is a four-year initiative to tackle legal and administrative challenges along EU internal borders. Composed of four callsfor proposals, all applications were assessed by the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR) in collaboration with the Border Focal Point at the Commission’s DG REGIO.

Under the first call for proposals in 2018 and the second one in 2019, a total of 43 cases were selected.

The third and fourth rounds, in summer 2020 and early 2021 respectively, accepted applications in 6 themes: Employment, Evidence and Data, Health, Information Services, Institutional Cooperation and Multilingualism.

In total, 47 cases were selected to receive support of legal experts with knowledge of cross-border instances who will elaborate possible solutions together with roadmaps to implement them. Some examples of the projects awarded are Coorcurity by euregio rhein-maas-nord, facilitating the coordination of social security systems for cross-border workers and pensioners, the Cross Border Transport of Medical Goods per Unmanned Aerial Vehicle (i.e., drones) by the Eems Dollard Region, and Corona Pandemic and Home Office – Consequences for the social security and taxation of cross-border workers by Grenzinfopunkt Aachen-Eurode.

To follow, AEBR and the European Commission will release a compendium complementing the first one released in Summer 2020, with the findings included in the experts’ final reports to raise awareness and promote knowledge exchange.

In the meantime, please find the full list of projects for the third call here and for the fourth one here.

To read the first compendium, click here.

On 15 October 2020, at the Interreg Annual Event, EU Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms Elisa Ferreira and the German Presidency of the EU Council received the Manifesto for Young People by Young People to Shape the European Cooperation Policy, in which Europe’s youth expressed its views with the aim of influencing Interreg policy making and its project-based implementation.

More particularly, the Manifesto contains twelve recommendations from young people to boost their involvement in European Territorial Cooperation. The ideas presented in this document, were collected by European Commission staff via targeted surveys, polls and online group discussions with young people from all over Europe, including the EU’s outermost regions and its neighbouring countries. Encompassing our society’s biggest challenges now and in the future, the Manifesto covers five key areas: education and training opportunities; employment and job market; digitalisation; climate change and citizens' engagement.

In order to further spread the message of this Manifesto, a special communication kit was made containing a video, infographics and social media visuals.

We encourage all Interreg and Macroregional Strategies to not only implement the twelve recommendations, but to share them with their network too!

Be it young people, politicians or local, regional or national administration staff, this document is a great tool to show that young people’s ideas can help us in building a better, fairer and stronger EU for all.

To directly download the kit, please click here.

Discover the manifesto in all EU languages here

You have ideas about how the EU could better tackle the challenges of cooperating across borders effectively ? You want the voice of EU citizens living in border regions to be heard in shaping the Europe of tomorrow ? You wish to relay the ideas of citizens who care for the same territorial space or asset ?

This is the right moment to speak up. Over the coming 12 months, the Conference on the Future of Europe will empower citizens, local communities, civil society across the EU to deliberate and have a greater say on designing the Europe they want, the EU policies and their future. The conference will develop around the following main elements:

· The Multilingual digital platform - will be the place for citizens to share ideas and send online submissions. They will be collected, analysed and published throughout the Conference;

· Decentralised events - online, in-person and hybrid events held by people and organisations as well as national, regional and local authorities across Europe;

· European citizens’ panels - will discuss different topics, based on the input provided by citizens through the digital platform. These panels will be representative in terms of geographic origin, gender, age, socioeconomic background and/or level of education;

· Conference Plenaries - will ensure that the recommendations from the national and European citizens’ panels, grouped by themes, are debated without a predetermined outcome and without limiting the scope to pre-defined policy areas.

You can have your say and determine the deliberations and the outcome of the conference in particular through participating and sharing your proposals via the platform and mobilising and involving citizens through participatory events.

Through the platform (http://futureu.europa.eu ), you can:

· share your own ideas, endorse and comment on other people ideas;

· organise a participative and inclusive event (by definition, all the events you will be organising throughout the project) and report back with ideas from your event;

· browse a map of all registered events and attend an event or look at other people’s ideas and comments.

Your proposals will be then discussed in the European citizens’ panels and the Conference Plenary. They will become part of the outcomes of the Conference that will be presented to the Presidents of the European Parliament, Council and Commission. The three institutions will examine swiftly how to follow up effectively, each within their own sphere of competences and in accordance with the Treaties.

The Conference is the biggest bottom-up democratic exercise ever put in place in Europe. This is your chance. Make your voice heard. The future is in your hands.

1. Useful links

The multilingual digital platform: https://futureu.europa.eu/

Video recording of the press conference of the launch: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/topnews/M-006565

Press release: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/ip_21_1764

Q&As: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/qanda_21_1765

Factsheet on the platform: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/fs_21_1821

Factsheet on the Conference roll-out: https://ec.europa.eu/commission/presscorner/detail/en/fs_21_1822

Promotional video of the platform: https://audiovisual.ec.europa.eu/en/video/I-204289

Logos and campaign materials in all 24 languages: https://futureu.europa.eu/uploads/24-Language-Packs.zip

Compared to the 2014-2020 period, the new Interreg Regulation has become more comprehensive, and it includes many aspects previously covered in other regulations or delegated acts. In the negotiations, the initial set of draft regulations proposed by the Commission has undergone substantial changes.

Re-discover the event on the new implementation provisions for the future generation of programmes, done by Interact here and the one by TESIM for Interreg NEXT and IPA here.

Share the two videos on Interreg 2021-2027 programmes

- Interreg external dimension https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v4DhDDtZiXw

- Interreg internal dimension https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=upzUvHHy2LA

After the ministers adopted the Izola Declaration on 11 May 2021, and with it the new, tenth member, the Republic of San Marino welcomed, the 6th EUSAIR Forum was officially opened by the major of Izola, Danilo Markočič. Opening speeches followed from the Slovenian Presidency represented by the ministers Anže Logar and Zvone Černač and the European Commissioner for Reform and Cohesion, Elisa Ferreira. The Commissioner emphasized that “citizens in EUSAIR countries are not only sharing the sea, but also sharing the future.«

The discussion with Nobel Peace Prize and leading Slovenian expert on climate change, Lučka Kajfež Bogataj, and the EU Climate Pact Ambassador, Boštjan Videmšek was truely inspiration on tackling climate change, the biggest threat of human kind. They emphasized the need for change of individual life-styles and called for new institutions that will be able to cope with contemporary challenges.

The dedicated Pillar Sessions on Blue Growth, Connecting the Region, Environmental Quality and Sustainable Tourism all focusses on horizontal green issue going as a red thread through the forum.

The second day featured the innovative awards of Young POPRI of the Windmill of Excellence. The Young POPRI award was given to the six best entrepreneurial ideas among high school and university students from the region. The reward is the participation in a 14-day online seminar hosted by the California-based M Accelerator. A special recognition for the most creative "borderless idea" was given by the representatives of Nova Gorica and Gorizia as European Capital of Culture 2025. It was received by members of the Bioneers team from North Macedonia.

The Windmills of Excellence and the honorary title of ambassadors of macro-regional strategy was awarded to: Mirjana Čagalj from Croatia, George Alexakis from Greece, Rosella Rusca from Italy, Milena Krasić from Montenegro and Bojana Cipot and Emilija Kastelic from Slovenia.

The Presidency was officially handed over to Albania and Olta Xhacka emphasized that Albania will continue to focus on young people. With Tirana, being the European Youth Capital of 2022, EUSAIR will synergize efforts to support youth involvement in the region.

If you have missed the 6th EUSAIR Forum, rewatch it HERE

More information HERE

Action 4 Mobility Conference: The yearly EUSALP Mobility Conference took place in Nice, within the Framework of the #EUYearofRail, under the title „Connected and smart rail transport for sustainability in the Alpine Region’. The conference will be held on 20-21 May 2021. rewatch the event

Action 5 Digital Conference: On 27 and 28 of May, the EUSALP organised an online Digital Alps Conference to meet with multiple stakeholders of the Alpine area, as well as International speakers. rewatch the two days agenda : www.digitalalps.eu

The Interreg Annual Event, organised by DG REGIO Units D1/D2 of the European Commission, is a yearly opportunity to review programme implementation.

Its goal is to bring together Managing Authorities and Joint Secretariats of all Interreg Programmes, including IPA & NEXT programmes, to discuss challenges and opportunities for cooperation with the European Commission.

While the 2020 edition, which also marked Interreg’s 30^th birthday, was heavily affected by the COVID-19 pandemic, this year, we are aiming for a higher level of presence in Brussels – if circumstances allow – on top of virtual and hybrid sessions, as we discuss cross-border difficulties and unlocked potential for the coming six years.

For the early birds among us – be sure to pencil in 7 and 8 October in your agenda and join us for the biggest event on the Interreg calendar!

To rewatch some of last year’s sessions, including the Youth Dialogue with Marc Lemaître, Director-General, DG REGIO, head on over to the replay platform.

Most of them result from political and administrative or geographical and natural conditions. Frequently, these stem from different governance systems, difficulties in introducing Union law, a lack of adequate transport infrastructure or inadequate protection and management of natural resources across borders. Obstacles for cross-border cooperation are partially very local, while others impact on many or even all borders in South East Europe. The preliminary analysis hints at numerous negative socio-economic, socio-cultural and environmental impacts for many cross-border regions. Sometimes they accumulate, creating a wider negative impact not least for the quality of life of citizens in the border regions. Future IPA CBC programmes may help to mitigate cross-border obstacles through different priorities, such as ‘A better Interreg governance’, ‘A more connected Europe’ or ‘A greener, low-carbon Europe’. The objective ‘A Europe closer to citizens’ may also provide useful access points to address socio-cultural obstacles, which are highly relevant in South East Europe.

Earlier this year, the EUSBSR, the first EU macro-regional strategy (MRS) and one of the most diverse, presented its updated action plan under the 2021-2027 Cohesion policy-programming period. Covering the Baltic Sea and its hinterlands, it serves 85 million people across 8 EU Member States - Denmark, Estonia, Finland, Germany, Latvia, Lithuania, Poland, and Sweden -, and Neighbouring Countries: Belarus, Iceland, Norway, and Russia.

This new plan will strengthen, share and accelerate resilience, recovery and secure economic and social development while striving for a green and digital transition. In particular, it focuses on intensified international cooperation in solving cross-border issues, a topic that became more relevant than ever following COVID-19 and subsequent border lockdowns. The document also details how the #NextGenerationEU recovery package will be used and how the MRS policies will be aligned with the UN Sustainable Development Goals.

Aside from guiding investments, the plan intends to boost the participation of young people in the governance process as well as introduce a simplified coordination and management system, the reduction in the number of actions from 73 to 44 across 14 policy areas, and a Trio of Presidencies to promote coherence and continuity.

Last but not least, a Baltic Sea Strategy Point will coordinate capacity building and knowledge sharing, and improve the communication capacity.

In short, the Baltics are looking at a challenging, long-term work – but the results will be worth it: from a higher quality of life to more sustainable practices. Together, we’re stronger.

Want to read more? Then visit the EUSBSR’s official website

According to estimates, in the past years, EC Days allowed to reach close to 7.9 million people, including website and live events visits, traditional media and social media reach. The social media promotion has been particularly successful in the past few years, reaching 2.3 million people in 2020 alone. This means that we have a very good chance to reach the 10 million goal by the end of this year, with a sufficient number of local events.

To support you organize and promote your local events, Interact programme is offering the following services:

- Updated campaign guide with a lot of specific ideas for local events. The guide is adapted to the Covid-related challenges and includes two new detailed event concepts.

- Updated campaign website with interactive map featuring all local events, including online events and a dedicated section for competitions.

- New visual identity, including a special logo commemorating the anniversary. All the visuals and templates are available on the campaign website.

- Customised versions of the campaign promotional video, featuring your local event details and programme logo/s.

- Advertising campaign for your local events on Facebook, coordinated and paid by Interact.

So, what do you need to do?

Step 1: Check out the campaign guide: https://www.interact-eu.net/library#3419-publication-ec-day-2021-guide-programmes

Step 2: Start planning your local event and add it to the campaign website: www.ecday.eu

Step 3: Follow the campaign online community to gain access to all the support services, including the custom video and paid promotion on Facebook.

If you have any questions and would like to join the biggest Cooperation Day celebration ever, please reach out to the campaign manager, Nebojsa Nikolic: Nebojsa.Nikolic@interact-eu.net