Interreg GO 2025

Description

• 27 and 28 March 2025
• Gorizia (IT) and Nova Gorica (SI)

On 27-28 March 2025, the Interreg GO! high-level event took place in the cross-border European Capital of Culture jointly hosted by the twin cities Nova Gorica (SI) and Gorizia (IT), gathering 582 on-site participants!

The objective of the conference was to present the results of the unprecedented public consultations on the Interreg post-2027, which brought altogether 15,000 contributions from programmes, cooperation stakeholders and citizens. The positive engagement of participants and speakers, the insightful contributions during panels and workshops, together with the celebration of 35 years of Interreg, made the event truly special.

At Interreg GO!, Interreg was confirmed as a powerful tool in the EU’s Cohesion Policy, playing a vital role in bringing Europe together and ensuring the right to stay. In today’s changing geopolitical landscape, cooperation through Interreg is essential for reinforcing the Single Market, allowing border regions to contribute to the competitiveness agenda, and strengthening Europe as a whole.  At the same time, discussions demonstrated how Interreg contributes to stabilizing Europe’s borders and extends EU values beyond its borders.

The importance of key principles such as the place-based approach, partnership, multi-level governance, and shared management was highlighted in all discussions at the conference, as well as the strong support from various institutions for a robust Interreg framework.

We would like to reiterate our special thanks to the programme authorities for their essential role in translating cooperation policies into real-world outcomes. Their work is crucial in achieving Interreg’s goals and supporting Europe’s regions and we encourage them to share outcomes of their consultations as much as possible.

We will publish the consultation report in the course of April - early May, so stay tuned for more information!

In the meantime, we invite you to take part in the ongoing public consultation on the future multiannual financial framework which was launched following the Commission’s communication ‘The road to the next multiannual financial framework’ . The communication calls for a simpler, more impactful, and more targeted budget and proposes a stronger link between investments and reforms, as well as a performance-based approach.

We would like to thank all participants once again, for their dedication and support. We look forward to continuing this journey with you and seeing you at future Interreg events.
REGIO’s Interreg team

LINKS:

Report of the event: Inforegio_post-conf_report.pdf
Photos:  Photos Day1 &  Photos Day2
The Commission’s press release: Inforegio - Interreg GO! Conference: Celebrating 35 Years of Cooperation and Looking to the Future
Opening speech by EVP Fitto: The Interreg GO! Event
Public consultation on the future multiannual financial framework:  You can now take part in shaping the next EU long-term budget - European Commission
Opening speech by Commissioner Kos: Speech by Commissioner Kos at InterregGO

“The presentations and the reports from the thematic parallel sessions of DAY 2 can be found and downloaded under Day 2 programme – parallel sessions part below on the page.”

More information

“There is no better way to use EU funds than Interreg” – Ursula von der Leyen, President of the European Commission, when visiting the new Interreg-funded fire station in Vučevica, Croatia, in September 2023

Interreg is a unique, territorially driven instrument of the European Union that through cooperation, joint projects and governance promotes harmonious development across borders and enables people, institutions, and territories in the entire EU and its immediate neighbourhood to work together on joint challenges and opportunities. It reduces obstacles created by borders, facilitates the seamless functioning of the Internal Market, tackles challenges shared by larger geographical areas and enables all regions to learn from each other for better regional development. Finally, it brings together people across borders to build relationships, solidarity and trust.

For neighbouring countries and regions, Interreg offers a valuable opportunity to cooperate with their EU peers. For candidate countries, Interreg helps to build capacities for EU membership.

DG Regional and Urban Policy invites cooperation stakeholders and Interreg programmes to the Interreg GO! event on 27 and 28 March 2025.

The first day, the high-level event will conclude the outcomes of the broad consultation process on Interreg as part of cohesion policy post-27.

The conference is organized in partnership with the Interreg Italy-Slovenia programme, the EGTC GO!, the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia region in Italy and the Ministry for Cohesion and Regional Development in Slovenia, as well as with Interact.

The two-day programme includes:

• DAY 1 on 27 March 2025: The post-2027 High-level event with high-level political representation, where key messages from the consultation on post-27 will be presented and discussed, taking into account the broader political and policy perspectives.
• DAY 2 on 28 March 2025: The Interreg Annual Event dedicated to the review and discussion on hot topics for current 2021-2027 Interreg programmes, including parallel thematic sessions and project visits related to them.

Optional activities and visits, organised by partners of the IT – SL programme and the EGTC GO! are also offered for a limited number of participants arriving early on 26 March.

The meeting takes place in the highly symbolic cross-border twin cities of Gorizia (Italy) and Nova Gorica (Slovenia), joint first cross-border winners of the title of European Capital of Culture (ECoC) in 2025 and celebrating culture without boundaries - thus offering a lot of possibilities for joint events. The event will take you to several venues in both cities, offering a real cross-border experience!

More details about the days and the agenda below:

Day 1 - High-level INTERREG post-2027 event

• Interreg GO! Webstreaming (EN)
• Interreg GO! High-level opening (Original Audio)
• Interreg GO! Main takeaways from the consultations on the future of Interreg (Original Audio)

For high level political representatives, programme authorities, regions, cities and youth

Key sessions:

• The morning plenary composed of three panel discussions:
  • Panel 1: Border regions, transnational regions: obstacles and opportunities
  • Panel 2: Cooperation & Performance: Shifting up a Gear
  • Panel 3: Cooperation: Shared Spaces, Shared Goals
• The afternoon programme includes the Interreg Slam 2024-2025, Keynote speeches/interviews, press conference, evening activities, cocktail and dinner.

Day 2 – INTERREG Annual Event

For Interreg programmes authorities (up to three participants per programme)

We will focus on 2021-2027 programme implementation, results achieved, highlighting best practices and lessons learnt, offering a lot of opportunities for networking and for exchanges with colleagues from REGIO and Interact.

Key themes:

• The morning plenary will cover key implementation issues: implementation overview, operations of strategic importance (OSIs) and Interreg Specific Objectives (ISOs).
• The afternoon will consist of 6 parallel thematic sessions and related project visits.

In addition to the opportunity of visiting inspiring EU co-financed Interreg projects and discovering the region, we will celebrate 35 years of Interreg.

Presentations

Final Reports

Travel to the event

There are three international airports from which the event hosting towns are reachable: Ljubljana, Venice or Trieste (Trieste airport is the closest to the event location).

From Ljubljana airport the GoOpti Airport Transfer offers shuttles and private taxi options to reach Gorizia and Nova Gorica. (2 hours long trip)

From Trieste airport the Aeroporto Trieste Airport - APT Gorizia offers bus options (departure every 3 hours) to reach Gorizia train station. (30/40 minutes long trip)

Trenitalia offers train rides between Trieste Central Station and other smaller stations to Gorizia train station. (40 minutes to 1-hour long trip)

From Venezia airport IT – Trenitalia offers train rides to reach Gorizia train station. (over 2 hours long trip)

Accommodation

The hotel offering the biggest capacity is Hotel La Perla, in Nova Gorica. A block booking was done to facilitate the room reservation. To book a room, you can write to booking@hit.si and do the reservation using the reservation code Pomilioblumm2025.

A list of other possible accommodation is made available for your convenience. There are three lists: the one to be considered in priority is the first one, listing accommodation in Gorizia/Nova Gorica/Sempeter area. The two other lists include additional suggestions in the surroundings if needed. The lists indicate the maximum capacity of the hotels.

Bus transfers

On site, the European Commission will organise bus transfers as specified in the programme.
Hotel pick-up/drop-off points for the bus transfers will be defined around hotels offering the biggest capacity. Information about the location of these points will be made available in the coming weeks.

Do you wish to register to the event? Please send an email to REGIO-INTERREG-GO@ec.europa.eu