15 years of the EGTCs. Lessons learnt and future perspectives

In 2020, within the framework of the Legal accessibility initiative, CESCI wanted to provide a kind of summary of the 15-year old EU tool in a volume. The studies give a comprehensive picture on the EGTC tool and its application.

The European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) as an EU legal tool

The draft regulation on EGTC was compiled in 2004. The Regulation itself was adopted in 2006 with the assistance of a Hungarian member of the European Parliament, István Pálfi who passed away in a tragically young age in 2006. Not only he actively participated in the preparation of the regulation but he also informed the Hungarian border municipalities on the coming act. By doing this, he actively contributed to the fact that today Hungary is the country hosting the highest number of EGTCs and that nearly one third of all registered groupings have Hungarian members. Therefore, the experiences of the application of this legal tool in Hungary are valuable for the whole European Union. The legal instrument created by the EC Regulation No 1082/2006 brought about radical novelty compared to every earlier form of cooperation in that the EGTC has a full legal capacity in each of its members’ countries – within the confines of their competencies. This mere fact has offered earlier unknown perspectives in terms of the realisation of integrated cross-border cooperation and development: EGTCs are allowed to hire staff, to establish institutions and public undertakings on either side of the border and to define the tariffs of the services thereof.

Hungary was among the first ones to adopt the domestic EGTC legislation and the Regulation amended in 2013. The EGTC program coordinated by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade is an exemplary model in the EU which includes the professional and financial support of the groupings operating in Hungary. Mostly thanks to this support, since 2008, 24 Hungarian EGTCs have been implementing projects amounting to approximately EUR 100 million, employing more than 60 persons and involving 426 local and regional authorities as members.

About the volume

The publication is designed to explore the lessons learned regarding this EU legal instrument as well as its future perspectives. The book was published in English, in 250 copies. Redaction was made by CESCI. The volume is also available online. Those experts of the topic from all over Europe were invited to contribute to the volume with the following chapters: