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The Forerunner: INTERREG
How did it all begin?
In the 1950s some people in various border areas, start looking at each other with more and more interest: Why not cooperate? Why not join forces to overcome similar issues? The first initiatives of cross-border cooperation appear, with the creation of the first euroregion, EUREGIO, in 1958 at the German-Dutch border. Other similar structures, but also inter-state agreements on cross-border cooperation and organisations like the Association of European Border Regions appear from the 1960s to the 1980s, essentially in western and northern Europe.
In the 1980s the need to support actions in the field of cross-border is progressively acknowledged by European institutions. The first idea: to prepare the border areas for the opening of the Single Market in 1992, with an eye to the economic and social cohesion of the European Community. After the adoption of a first series of 14 pilot cross-border actions in 1989, the European Community launches in 1990 a dedicated initiative: INTERREG.
In this section you can find out more about the INTERREG I, INTERREG II and INTERREG III Community Initiatives as well as their successor, the European Territorial Cooperation objective.
