The participants of the first day’s three panels, moderated by Commission staff, discussed the results and conclusions of the consultation on the future of Interreg programmes in 2024, taking into account the perspectives of each programme.

It was reported that nearly 15,000 people filled in the consultation questionnaire, attaching particular importance to the results achieved so far and to the continuation of the programmes, as cross-border cooperation is seen as a laboratory for the European Union. The development of border regions also fits in with the “right to stay”, as expressed by the EU High Commissioner Ursula von der Leyen. However, it was also said that, like cohesion policy as a whole, the Interreg system needs to be modernised. This means, on the one hand, that, as in the case of the Recovery and Resilience Instrument (RRF), new performance indicators will be introduced for territorial cooperation programmes (data and knowledge sharing, effective communication, etc.), which will also determine the timing and level of payments. On the other hand, the experience of recent years has shown that greater thematic and geographical flexibility will be needed, as the priorities of the seven-year programming cycle are increasingly being overridden by unforeseen events (the war in Ukraine has led to the reallocation of €150 million between Interreg programmes). This flexibility should also allow greater freedom for programmes to test new solutions and to take account of territorial differences in the intervention logic of programmes. This innovation is particularly important for the development of cross-border public services and for cross-border risk management and the removal of legal and administrative barriers that hinder it.

The grassroots nature of Interreg programmes and their governance model should be preserved, reinforcing the role of small grants for people-to-people cooperation (especially for young people), including study visits and the promotion of bilingualism. A more structured cooperation with the European Groupings of Territorial Communities should be sought. At the same time, speakers encouraged the creation of synergies with the (mainstream) programmes distributed at national level and with other Interreg programmes of territorial relevance.