Beyond EGTC, beyond Interreg. The annual meeting of the European Cross-Border Platform
EGTCs + Knowledge sharing + Policy-making | 24 November 2025
Beyond EGTC, beyond Interreg. The annual meeting of the European Cross-Border Platform
EGTCs + Knowledge sharing + Policy-making | 24 November 2025
The European Cross-Border Platform (ECBP) held its annual meeting in Gorizia on 13 and 14 November 2025. The first event of the new platform, launched in Budapest last year at the “Art of Cooperation” Council Presidency event, looked back at the achievements so far and analysed future perspectives, including new and innovative approaches to territorial cooperation.
The ECBP, steered by a committee composed of the representatives of the COTER Committee of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR), the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR), the Mission Opérationnelle Transfrontalière (MOT) and the Central European Service for Cross-border Initiatives (CESCI), aims to gather all relevant stakeholders throughout Europe involved in cross-border cooperation, irrespective of the legal form they are operating in. The platform can be considered the enlarged successor to the former EGTC platform, which annually convened exclusively the groupings. The enlargement is reasoned by the fact that many further tools are available for the local actors to manage their cross-border activities, which have not been represented in the EGTC platform, as Pavel Branda, chair of the Platform, highlighted. Furthermore, the EGTC is not a popular tool in every EU Member State, while in many cases, the border citizens and structures would need the assistance of all of them.
The first annual meeting was organised by the CoR and the AEBR in Gorizia (Italy), holding the title of the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) in 2025, with its twin-city partner of Nova Gorica (Slovenia). After the welcoming addresses given by Counsellor Sergio Emidio Bini (Fiuli Venezia Giulia Region), Counsellor Sarah Filisetti (Gorizia Municipality), Samo Turel, the Mayor of Nova Gorica, Pavel Branda, and Raffaele Fitto, Commissioner for Reforms and Cohesion (online), Hynek Böhm, Associated Professor of the University of Liberec gave a brief lecture on the future of cross-border cooperation, from an academic point of view. In his video message, Sandro Gozi, MEP, explained that the European Parliament was not satisfied with the MFF proposal, but, at least, the Interreg survived the difficult period.
The first panel, dedicated to the future of cross-border cooperation in a changing world, was moderated by Ana Nikolov (AEBR Balkans). The participants (Pavel Branda, Olivier Baudelet from DG REGIO, David Swentek from the European Economic and Social Committee, and Andrew Boff representing the Congress of the Council of Europe) agreed that the biggest challenge for the cross-border actors is to convince and involve the national authorities. Contributions from the audience have confirmed this statement. Ricardo Ferreira (DG REGIO) suggested not confronting the interests of the cross-border stakeholders and the national governments, as they mutually need each other. Another conclusion was that, as border regions are diverse, so are the cooperation models. At the same time, the European Union provides a comprehensive toolkit universally usable for different needs.
The second panel has given a summary of the Resilient Borders call managed by the AEBR and the MOT. After the overview given by Jean Peyrony, Director of the MOT and Martín Guillermo-Ramírez, Secretary General of AEBR, Federica Gallus, representative of the EGTC GO, presented the crisis management project implemented with the help of the call. Monica Colucci and François Lefebvre, from the French-Italian border area, introduced the spatial planning project.
The last session of the first day involved experts of the EU enlargement with the Western Balkans countries: Barbara Zilli (Friuli Venezia Giulia Region), Tomislav Žigmanov (Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Serbia), and Kerim Medjedovič (Local Democracy Agency, from Montenegro). The panel was moderated by Caitriona Mullan, an AEBR expert.
The second day’s panels focused on the added value and the future perspectives of the EGTC tool. First, in the panel moderated by Anne Thevenet, Director of the Euro-Institut of Kehl, the added value of the instrument was presented from different points of view. The Kvarken Council (presented by the Director, Mathias Lindström) opted for the EGTC to strengthen the organisation and provide it with stability. For the twin cities of Chaves and Verín (Pablo Rivera), the establishment of the grouping guarantees its own staff, its own budget, and strategic perspectives. The NAEN EGTC (Leyre Azcona) can play a mediating role between the two public administrations of France and Spain, and amplify the impact of the cross-border activities. The Pannon EGTC (Judit Füzér) is enabled to involve members from Bosnia and Herzegovina through the instrument facilitating Europeanisation of the candidate countries. Romina Cocina, the director of EGTC GO, highlighted the grouping’s capacity to manage cross-border integrated territorial investments (ITI) and the small project fund assisting the cross-border ECoC project. For the Deggendorf Technical University (Stefan Sunzenauer), the establishment of the EGTC opened the chance to tighter collaboration with the Austrian Applied Science University and the development of joint courses. The Saar-Moselle EGTC (Christine Steck) managed to open a bilingual child care home, which required their knowledge in intercultural exchange and cross-border project management.
At the beginning of the last round-table discussion, the moderator, Gyula Ocskay (secretary general of CESCI), summarised the lessons learnt on the added value of the tool. These are:
– stability: from a timely perspective (continuity), legally (stable institution reducing the attractiveness of exit strategies), in capacities (dedicated and permanent staff, own budget);
– enabler of strategic cooperation based on institutional stability;
– catalyst of cross-border projects equipped with special expertise on cross-border developments and the combination of funds, along with the strategic aims of the shared territory;
– laboratory of shared solutions equipped with coordinating, mediating roles between the different national authorities and stakeholders; and developer and manager of cross-border services;
– better visibility promoting networking (at regional and international levels) and advocacy mission of the cross-border region; and
– an instrument of identification with the cross-border area and the European values.
The panellists added further aspects. According to Julianna Máté (Via Carpatia EGTC), the groupings can be considered “cross-border ambassadors” operating in the proximity of citizens and institutions. Sandra Sodini (Senza Confini EGTC) underlined their innovative character when piloting joint investments, providing joint services and testing multilevel governance solutions. Frédéric Siebenhaar (EGTC PAMINA) referred to the community-focused tasks their organisation carries out. Elisa Bertò (Tyrol South-Tyrol Terentino EGTC) explained the role of the Euroregion in turning the political debates into a joint future vision-making.
The speakers also expanded to the needs of the groupings. According to Xavier Bernard Sans (Pyrenees-Mediterranean EGTC), many Member States still view the EGTC tool as not yet experimented with and are hesitant to entrust it with substantial tasks or resources. Administrative capacities remain insufficient, and border regions continue to face many of the same challenges that existed two decades ago. In his view, a joint Task Force should be set up involving the representatives of the EGTCs, the European Commission, the European Parliament and the Member States, through which the visibility and the policy-making role of the EGTCs can be boosted. The panellists shared the conclusion that the biggest challenge is to raise awareness towards the tool in the political sphere. For instance, the DGs in Brussels do not know the EGTCs, regardless of the efforts DG REGIO has made so far. Furthermore, EGTCs would be able to manage Interreg programmes, but the national authorities are not in favour of this solution. The groupings also reclaim their cross-border acknowledgement in vain: not only are they excluded from the calls published on the other side of the border, but very often even the mainstream operational programmes within the seat country neglect them. By enforcing the advocacy of the EGTCs, the effects of the persisting legal and administrative obstacles can also be reduced.
As Pavel Branda summarised it, the ECBP may assist in achieving a greater visibility at the European level through the involvement of different DGs, promoting networking (uniting forces) and knowledge exchange (sharing good practices), facilitating the policy-making role of the EGTCs (through their involvement in the design of CoR opinions), and supporting joint and harmonised communication. Finally, based on the proposal made by Xavier Connil, director of Cerdanya EGTC, the ECBP embraces the proposal on a special EU status of cross-border workers, which will be piloted at the French-Spanish border by three EGTCs. Ricardo Ferreira confirmed that the Border Focal Point of the DG REGIO is ready to assist in these developments.
The next annual meeting of the ECBP will take place on 10 and 11 June 2026, to be organised by the CoR and CESCI.
