Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2019 to the Interreg community!

Dear Interreg Family,

Before entering your well-deserved Christmas break, we would like to take a moment to look back at the exciting year 2018. First, we looked back and celebrated 30 years of Cohesion Policy and took stock of the amazing achievements, milestones and major added value of the past five programming periods which have made a positive impact on the lives of millions of citizens. Ever since its development in 1990, Interreg has played a key role in tackling regional disparities in Europe through cooperation. Interreg can be said to illustrate Cohesion Policy at its best. Each European region has been a part of and contributed to this success story.

Secondly, 2018 has paved the way for the future. In May 2018, the European Commission presented a budgetary framework for the 2021-27 period together with an ambitious draft legislative proposal for Cohesion Policy. Our aim is to have a more flexible and efficient regulation that allows focusing on what is important and reduces administrative burden for all stakeholders. Even though new challenges have emerged like Brexit, migration, climate change and security issues, the proposed solid budgetary allocation for European Territorial Cooperation demonstrates its added value and importance for the Commission.

Therefore, we would like to pay tribute to your hard work and dedication to ensure that Interreg programmes delivered strong results during 2018. The European Year of Cultural Heritage provided a great opportunity to demonstrate your cooperation spirit and your extraordinary commitment. It highlighted how Interreg projects contribute to the preservation and boosting of the cultural sector in Europe, in its regions and border areas.

We are looking forward to continuing our joint efforts in 2019. In particular while the Council and the Parliament are negotiating the budget and legislative proposals for 2021-2027, it is of utmost importance to continue capitalising on projects’ achievements and communicating the European added value of Interreg to our citizens.

We wish you all a very merry Christmas, a happy New Year and look forward to our cooperation in 2019.

Kind regards,

Jean-Pierre Halkin, Head of Unit, DG REGIO, Unit D1 Macro-Regions, Transnational/ Interregional cooperation, IPA and Enlargement.

Pascal Boijmans, Head of Unit, DG REGIO, Unit D2, Interreg, Cross-border cooperation, Internal borders.