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INTERREG II

The Community Initiative INTERREG II 1994-1999

For its second stage, the Community Initiative INTERREG II is extended from cross-border cooperation to also cover transnational cooperation.

Cross-border cooperation remains the main part with fifty-nine programmes; INTERREG IIA opens up new areas of intervention: education, health, media services, language training.

Transnational cooperation focuses on two types of programmes:

INTERREG IIB: A continuation of the former Community Initiative REGEN ^[1] (1989-1993) and aimed at completing and integrating selected energy networks in Greece, between Greece and Italy as well as between Spain and Portugal (allocation: EUR 450 million). Those funds were used essentially to provide additional funding for national operations, and in total 455 projects were supported.
INTERERG IIC: In 1997, a third Strand, INTERREG IIC, waseuro added: seven general transnational cooperation programmes ^[2], two cooperation programmes in the field of flood prevention ^[3] and four programmes for drought prevention (Portugal, Spain, Italy and Greece). Article 10 of the ERDF Regulation for pilot actions is also used to support four additional pilot actions: Northern Periphery, Eastern Alps, Archimed and Mediterranean gateway, with a total European Union contribution of ECU 20 million with sixty-two projects implemented.

The RECITE and ECOS-Ouverture programmes also continued to be implemented during this period. The newcomer is the Terra programme ^[4], which supports the preparation of the INTERREG IIIB initiative.

During the same period, community funding became available for the first time for cooperation with non-EU Member States through the PHARE-CBC instrument (launched in 1994) and the TACIS-CBC instrument (from 1996 onwards).

All in all, with a Community contribution of ECU 3.5 billion (1996 prices), more than 10,000 cooperation projects will become reality during the period 1994-1999.

Towards the end of the INTERREG II programming period, in 1997, another significant steps in EU integration are taken by incorporating the Schengen Area within the competences of the EU. The Schengen Agreement foresees abolition of border controls between most Member States, establishing common rules on visas, and police and judicial cooperation.

Photo: INTERREG IIA 1994-1999

The REGEN Community Initiative, with an allocation of EUR 300 million, was essentially designed to help extend the gas network to deprived regions and improve connections between major European gas and electricity networks.
The 7 programmes were: Western Mediterranean and Latin Alps (ES, FR, IT, EL), South-Western Europe (PT, ES, FR), Atlantic Area (PT, ES, FR, UK, IE), North Western Metropolitan Area (FR, LU, BE, DE, NL, UK, IE), North Sea Area (UK, NL, DE, DK, SE, NO), Baltic Sea Area (DE, DK, S, FI Baltic States) Centre, Adriatic, Danube and Southeast Europe [CADSES] (IT, AT, EL, DE)
The two flooding programmes implemented were IRMA (Meuse-Rhine area, involving FR, BE, LU, DE, NL and CH), with 153 projects, and France-Italy
Terra: An experimental laboratory in spatial planning, financed under article 10 of the ERDF Regulation for pilot actions. The Terra programme aimed at the areas of the European Union whose specific territorial features made them more fragile and posed greater challenges for the development of an integrated strategy for the territories. Terra focused on experimental research on regional planning and looked at new approaches and integrated solutions, with a benchmarking approach. The programme covered the period 1997-2000 and supported a total of fifteen projects.