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36-454: The members of the Öresund Committee were: The members themselves elected their representatives and their deputies on the Öresund Committee. There were in total 36 representatives: 18 from Sweden and 18 from Denmark and the Committee met at least twice a year. Consists of 12 committee members; six from Sweden and six from Denmark and they meets at least four times a year. The Secretariat

72-659: A budget of almost 7,8 billion euro (2006 prices), up from 4,9 billion euro in Interreg III (1999 prices). The A strand of Interreg IV covers 52 programmes, which use up to 74% of all resources (some 5,6 billion euros). Interreg IVb is divided into thirteen different Operational Programmes (OPs). Each OP is led by a Secretariat and covers a specific part of the EU territory. All Member States can participate in Interreg IVB, but only if an organisation or authority

108-419: A consortium of several firms; in previous programme periods, they were not eligible at all. Interreg is made up of three strands: Interreg A, Interreg B and Interreg C. They are described in more detail below. Cross-border cooperation between adjacent regions aims to develop cross-border social and economic centres through common development strategies. The term cross-border region is often used to refer to

144-529: A council, a presidency, subject-matter oriented working groups and a common secretariat. The term Euroregion can refer both to a territorial unit, comprising the territories of the participating authorities, and an organizational entity, usually the secretariat or management unit. Legally, the cooperation can take different forms, ranging from legally non-binding arrangements to public-law bodies. The spatial extension of micro-CBRs will usually range between 50 and 100 km in width; and they tend to be inhabited by

180-401: A few million inhabitants. In most cases, the participating authorities are local authorities, although in other cases regional or district authorities are involved. Occasionally, third organizations, such as regional development agencies , interest associations and chambers of commerce , have become official members. The organizational set-up can also differ from the original model inspired by

216-404: A field long reserved for central state actors. For dealing with issues such as local cross-cross-border spatial planning or transport policy, in the 1960s and 1970s various bi-lateral and multi-lateral governmental commissions were established without granting access to local authorities (Aykaç 1994). They dealt with issues such as local cross-border spatial planning and transport policy. But over

252-555: A framework for exchanging experience between regional and local bodies in different countries. Strand C has an ERDF contribution of 445 million euros. The non-EU countries contribute fully their shares to these programs. The funding period 2014-2020 was centered around the Europe 2020 Strategy which was adopted by the EU in 2010. It was aimed at leading the EU towards an intelligent, sustainable and integrative economy characterized by high levels of employment and production as well as by

288-721: A large number of cross-border regions. Some of them are often referred to as ' Euroregions ' although this is an imprecise concept that is used for a number of different arrangements. European cross-border regions are most commonly constituted through co-operation among border municipalities, districts or regions. Many cross-border regions receive financial support from the European Commission via its Interreg programme. They vary in their legal and administrative set-up but have in common that they are not 'regions' in an administrative-constitutional sense. Many cross-border regions are based on some sort of civil-law agreements among

324-679: A marked social and territorial cohesion. For this period 2021-2027 a budget of nearly EUR 10 billion has been allocated to support around 100 Interreg programmes which operate across borders, both within and outside the EU, contributing to the implementation of the EU’s main cohesion policy priorities. Cross-border region A cross-border region is a territorial entity that is made of several local or regional authorities that are co-located yet belong to different nation states. Cross-border regions exist to take advantage of geographical conditions to strengthen their competitiveness. In Europe, there are

360-481: Is based in Copenhagen and is responsible for bringing political decisions to fruition. The Öresund Committee is hosting ØresundDirekt and Interreg IVA. In 2009 – 2010 the Öresund Committee highlighted four specific issues: As of April 2024, Greater Copenhagen Committee had the following 18 members: Interreg Interreg is a series of programmes to stimulate cooperation between regions in and out of

396-568: Is by far the largest strand in terms of budget and number of programmes. Transnational cooperation involving national, regional and local authorities aim to promote better integration within the Union through the formation of large groups of European regions. Strand B is the intermediate level, where generally non-contiguous regions from several different countries cooperate because they experience joint or comparable problems. There are 13 Interreg IVB programmes. Interregional cooperation aims to improve

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432-708: Is located in the eligible area of one of the programmes (Annex 1). IVB has a total budget of 1,82 billion euro for the programme period 2007–2013. List of the Interreg IVb programmes: Strand C covers the interregional co-operation programme (INTERREG IVC) and 3 networking programmes (URBACT II, INTERACT II and ESPON). Each programme covers all 27 Member States of the EU. ESPON, the European Spatial Planning Observation Network , covers 31 states; Liechtenstein, Norway, Iceland and Switzerland are included as well. They provide

468-783: The Arge Alp , the Alpes-Adria , the Working Community of the Western Alps (COTRAO), the Working Community of the Pyrenees or the Atlantic Arc. Their organizational structures usually consist of a general assembly, an executive committee, thematic working groups and secretariats (Aykaç, 1994: 12–14), but activities tend to be confined to common declarations and information exchange. However, some groupings, such as

504-490: The European Commission , the implementation of the programmes is co-ordinated by steering committees , which consist of representatives of the authorities responsible for Cohesion Policy measures in each member state. These can be both central state agencies and regional agencies. Like almost all Cohesion Policy measures, Interreg projects require co-funding to be provided by Member States, regional authorities or

540-607: The European Union (EU), funded by the European Regional Development Fund . The first Interreg started in 1989. Interreg IV covered the period 2007–2013. Interreg V (2014–2020) covers all 27 EU member states, the EFTA countries ( Norway , Switzerland , Iceland , Liechtenstein ), six accession countries and 18 neighbouring countries. It has a budget of EUR 10.1 billion, which represents 2.8% of

576-706: The Interreg community initiative launched by the European Commission in 1990; this policy was re-confirmed as Interreg II in 1994 and as Interreg III in 1999. There are several ways in which cross-border regions can be distinguished. First, they vary in geographic scope. Small-scale initiatives such as the EUREGIO can be distinguished from larger groupings, such as the 'Working Communities'. The latter – most of them were founded between 1975 and 1985 – usually comprise several regions forming large areas that can stretch over several nation states. Examples of Working Communities are

612-560: The Kreise , with the latter being self-governed groupings of municipalities. In most cases, the Kreise are the driving force behind cross-border initiatives. By contrast, in Italy, it is meso-level authorities, the 'province' ( provinces ), that are usually involved in cross-border cooperation initiatives while the municipalities play a minor role because of their relative fragmentation compared to

648-490: The Atlantic Arc, succeeded in obtaining European funds (Balme et al., 1996). Smaller initiatives are technically referred to as micro cross-border regions [2] but for simplicity they can be called Euroregions. Euroregions have a long tradition in certain areas of post-war Europe, especially on the Germany–Benelux border, where the expressions Euroregion and Euregio were coined. Organizationally, Euroregions usually have

684-562: The Dutch–German EUREGIO. Cross-border regions also differ in terms of how closely the participating parties work with each other. While some initiatives hardly go beyond ceremonial contacts, others are engaged in enduring and effective collaboration. For estimating the co-operation intensity of existing CBC arrangements, a catalogue of criteria proposed by the AEBR can be used: A third way of distinguishing cross-border regions considers

720-585: The Dutch–German border has been such a cross-national public body since 1993. However, the regulations delivered by such agencies are binding only on the public authorities within the cross-border area concerned and not on civil subjects (Denters et al. 1998). Compared with the Council of Europe, the CBC-related activities of the EU are primarily financial. Many CBC initiatives are eligible for support under

756-462: The German Kreise. In Scandinavia , as for instance in the Øresund region , both counties and large urban municipalities ( Greater Copenhagen ) participate in the cooperation arrangement. In general, in countries with a strong role for inter-municipal associations, cross-border co-operation is often pursued by local actors. By contrast, in countries with a two-tier regional administration and

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792-573: The Germany–Benelux border are established according to this model, following the initiatives by the EUREGIO . The first European cross-border region, the EUREGIO, was established in 1958 on the Dutch–German border , in the area of Enschede (NL) and Gronau (DE). Since then, Euroregions and other forms of cross-border co-operation have developed throughout Europe. For local and regional authorities, engaging in cross-border regions meant they entered

828-487: The Structural Fund's mainstream programmes. The overall aim was to improve the effectiveness of regional development policies and instruments through large-scale information exchange and sharing of experience (networks) in a structured way. Priorities for action included research, technology development, enterprise , the information society , tourism, culture, and the environment . Interreg IV - 2007-2013 - has

864-410: The effectiveness of regional development policies and instruments through large-scale information exchange and sharing of experience (networks). This is financially the smallest strand of the three, but the programmes cover all EU Member States. Period 2000-2006 Priorities for action in strand IIIA were: Proposals for transnational cooperation under IIIB had to take account of: Within this context,

900-469: The last 30 years, the scope for non-central governments (NCGs) to co-operate across borders has widened considerably. To a large degree, this can be related to macro-regional integration in Europe. In particular, two supranational bodies, the Council of Europe and the European Union , were important for improving the conditions under which NCGs could co-operate across borders. Whereas the Council of Europe

936-501: The majority of Cohesion Policy programmes in one important respect: it involves a collaboration among authorities of two or more Member States. Interreg measures are not only required to demonstrate a positive impact on the development on either side of the border but their design and, possibly, their implementation must be carried out on a common cross-border basis. Once the Operational Programmes have been approved by

972-472: The nature of the participating authorities. Most of the small-scale initiatives involve local authorities as the driving protagonists whereas large-scale CBC is almost exclusively driven by regional authorities. There is variance in this respect, depending on the territorial organization of different European countries. For instance, in Germany, local administration comprises two levels, the municipalities and

1008-428: The participating authorities. For instance, the classical form of a Euroregion is the ‘twin association’: On each side of the border, municipalities and districts form an association according to a legal form suitable within their own national legal systems. In a second step, the associations then join each other on the basis of a civil-law cross-border agreement to establish the cross-border entity. Many Euroregions along

1044-606: The priorities for action whereas follows: In the specific case of ultra-peripheral regions, transnational cooperation encourages the following initiatives: Interreg IIIC promoted interregional co-operation between regional and other public authorities across the entire EU territory and neighbouring countries. It allowed regions without joint borders to work together in common projects and develop networks of co-operation. Co-operation under Interreg IIIC gave access to experience of other actors involved in regional development policy and created synergies between "best practice" projects and

1080-424: The project leaders themselves. The amount of co-funding required differs by region, ranging from 50% down to 0% in the poorest regions. The final beneficiaries of Interreg funds are usually public authorities, interest associations and non-profit organisations, such as chambers of commerce, employer organisations, unions or research institutes. Under Interreg IV, private firms are only eligible if they apply through

1116-472: The resulting entities, provided there is some degree of local activity involved. The term Euroregion is also used to refer to the various types of entities that are used to administer Interreg funds. In many cases, they have established secretariats that are funded via technical assistance: the Interred funding component aimed at establishing an international presence for local Interreg deployment. Interreg A

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1152-565: The total of the European Cohesion Policy budget. Since the non EU countries don't pay EU membership fee, they contribute directly to Interreg, not through ERDF. Interreg is designed to stimulate cooperation between member states of the European Union on different levels. One of its main targets is to diminish the influence of national borders in favor of equal economic , social and cultural development of

1188-420: The whole territory of the European Union. The Interreg goal is designed to strengthen economic, social and territorial cohesion throughout Europe , by fostering the balanced development of the continent through cross-border, transnational and inter-regional cooperation. Special emphasis has been placed on integrating remote regions with those that share external borders with the candidate countries . Interreg

1224-497: Was in past particularly active in improving the legal situation, the Commission of the European Union new provides substantial financial support for CBC initiatives. Legally, the first cross-border regions were based on agreements with varying degrees of formality and mostly relied on good will. In 1980, on the initiative of the Council of Europe, the so-called Madrid Convention ( Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation )

1260-602: Was introduced as a first step towards CBC structures based on public law. The convention has been signed by 20 countries and was more recently updated with two Additional Protocols. It provides a legal framework for completing bi- and multinational agreements for public law CBC among NCGs. Examples for such agreements are the Benelux Convention on Cross-border Relations of 1989 and the German-Dutch Treaty of Anholt of 1991. The Rhine-Waal Euroregion on

1296-438: Was launched as Interreg I for the programming period 1989–1993 (budget EUR 1.1 billion), and continued as Interreg II for the subsequent period 1994–1999. It moved on to Interreg III for the period 2000–2006. Projects from that closed by the end of 2008. Interreg IV covered the years 2007–2013. Interreg V operated in the period from 2014 through 2020. Interreg VI is currently operational, from 2021 until 2027. Interreg differs from

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