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European Territorial Cooperation 2007-2013
"More growth and jobs for all regions and cities of the European Union." This is the message which is at the heart of the programming period 2007-2013 for Cohesion Policy and its instruments. European Territorial Cooperation has now been introduced as a fully-fledged objective of Cohesion Policy.
With a Community contribution of almost EUR 7.8 billion for the sole internal borders, and approximately EUR 9.4 billion by adding IPA-CBC and ENPI-CBC funding, territorial cooperation has reached a new scale and now comprehends 75 cross-border programmes (including external EU borders), 13 transnational programmes, one interregional programme INTERREG IVC and the three networking programmes URBACT, ESPON and INTERACT.
The 3 dimensions of European Territorial Cooperation:
- Cross-border Cooperation: helps transform regions located on either side of internal or external borders of the European Union into strong economic and social poles. In particular cross-border actions are encouraged in the fields of entrepreneurship, improving joint management of natural resources, supporting links between urban and rural areas, improving access to transport and communication networks, developing joint use of infrastructure, administrative cooperation and capacity building, employment, community interaction, culture and social affairs. A list of all CBC programmes can be found here.
- Transnational Cooperation: promotes cooperation among greater European regions, including the ones surrounding sea basins (e.g. Baltic Sea Region, North Sea, Mediterranean and Atlantic Area) or mountain ranges (e.g. Alpine Space) and facilitates coordinated strategic responses to joint challenges like flood management, transport and communication corridors, international business and research linkages, urban development and others. Special attention is given to outermost and island regions (e.g. Indian Ocean, Caribbean Area or Northern Periphery). A list of all transnational programmes can be found here.
- Interregional Cooperation: provides a framework for the exchange of experiences between local and regional actors from across Europe in order to contribute to the EU’s strategies on growth, jobs and sustainable development. In addition, it aims at reducing disparities by matching less experienced regions with more advanced regions in the various policy fields such as innovation, demographic change, energy supply and climate change. For more information, check the INTERREG IVC website.
3 Networking Programmes complete the ETC Objective:
- ESPON: European Spatial Planning Observatory Network, works with studying and predicting the development of the European territory. To the ESPON website.
- URBACT: Deals with exchange between Europe’s cities on integrated urban development. To the URBACT website.
- INTERACT: The cooperation and exchange network for territorial cooperation programmes
Territorial Cooperation with partner countries
ENPI-CBC and IPA-CBC are the two financial instruments dedicated to support of territorial cooperation between European Member States border regions and their neighbours in accession countries and in other partner countries of the EU.
- IPA-CBC: Territorial cooperation with accession countries. IPA-CBC currently finances 10 operational programmes. The list of programmes can be found here.
- ENPI-CBC: Territorial cooperation with partner countries. ENPI-CBC currently cupports 13 operational programmes. The list of programmes can be found here.
