On 2 December 2023, the Commission presented an amended proposal (click here) for a regulation on a mechanism to resolve legal and administrative obstacles in a cross-border context (FCBS).  This amended proposal takes account of previously raised concerns of the Parliament and Council and maintains the original focus of the European Cross-Border Mechanism (ECBM) proposal in resolving the obstacles that impede upon the lives of cross-border communities.

Legal and administrative obstacles pose significant challenges in the daily lives of 150 million citizens who live in cross-border regions.  It is estimated that removing 20% of the bottlenecks would boost GDP by 2% and create over one million jobs in cross-border regions.  The Commission, in its proposal recognizes that the current instruments available at EU level do not provide an adequate response to overcoming obstacles affecting cross-border regions.

The amended proposal provides a legal framework applicable to all Member States to help find solutions to legal and administrative obstacles that potentially undermine cross-border interaction and the development of cross-border regions.  New cross-border coordination points will be set up on all Member States to assess files submitted by ‘initiators’ who are public law or private law entities or natural persons.  These initiators will describe the obstacles and address these to the coordination points for their consideration. 

The cross-border coordination point will assess the obstacle described by the initiator.  If it deems that there is an obstacle, it will first check if the existing cooperation structures can resolve the identified obstacle.  If there is no institutional structure for cross-border cooperation that can resolve the issue or if the existing structures are insufficient to do so, Member States may choose to use the Cross-Border Facilitation Tool set up under this Regulation.  The cross-border coordination point may choose not to resolve the obstacle, even if it deems that an obstacle exists.  In this case, it informs the initiator and will explain why the obstacle described in the file will not be addressed. 

The Cross-Border Facilitation Tool is a single procedure to tackle obstacles of a legislative or administrative nature.  The amended proposal has numerous benefits, providing Member States with a standard procedure for resolving obstacles.  It ensures that citizens living in border areas receive a response from their Member State on the possibility to overcome the identified obstacles.  In addition, it provides Member States which lack cooperation structures with a new tool to resolve obstacles.  The amended proposal will play an important role in enabling the functioning of the single market and fostering the economic, social and territorial cohesion of the EU.  In addition the proposal will have a direct impact on the daily lives of people living in cross-border regions by improving their access to services and economic opportunities.