EGTC-Workshop 2025/2 “The beginning of a beautiful friendship”. Visit of Iberian EGTCs in Budapest
EGTC-workshop + Knowledge sharing | 10 October 2025
EGTC-Workshop 2025/2 “The beginning of a beautiful friendship”. Visit of Iberian EGTCs in Budapest
EGTC-workshop + Knowledge sharing | 10 October 2025
A delegation of the EGTCs operating on the Iberian Peninsula visited their Hungarian counterpart to exchange knowledge, information and ideas for future cooperation. The meeting was held on 29 September in the Ybl Villa, with the support of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade.
In his welcoming address, Gyula Ocskay, Secretary General of the Central European Service for Cross-Border Initiatives (CESCI), cited the final sentence from the famous movie Casablanca, expressing his hope that the first meeting of the two groups of EGTCs would not be the last.
The participants were greeted by Mr Péter Kiss-Parciu, Deputy Secretary of State of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, and Mr Nuno Almeida, Director of the Galicia-North of Portugal EGTC, the head of the Iberian delegation. Both of them underlined the importance of networking across Europe, which may give a greater visibility and better advocacy for the groupings.
In the morning session, 5 Iberian EGTCs were introduced. First, Mr Xavier Conill, director of the Cerdanya Hospital EGTC, presented the only European cross-border hospital of 40 beds located in the Pyrenees, which is managed by a grouping. Besides the advantages and achievements, he also mentioned difficulties stemming from the differences between the French and Catalan health systems, and the rules governing employment (different wages for the same job, different rules for holidays, different retirement age rules, etc.). In his opinion, the latter problems can be resolved if a special EU-worker status is created for EGTCs. His proposal was also positively accepted by the Hungarian EGTC directors. It might be a topic where the groupings can act jointly in the future.
Xosé Lago, deputy director for Cross-Border Cooperation of the Galician Regional Government and Isabel Esteves, policy officer of the Galicia-North of Portugal EGTC, told the history of their cooperation from the Working Community to the EGTC format. This is the only region in the EU which has a cross-border Smart Specialisation Strategy identifying the necessary investments in a cross-border context. The EGTC runs a cross-border regional Erasmus programme called ‘Iacobus’ involving 41 tertiary educational, research and innovation institutions through which exchanges, joint publications, scientific events and patents are supported.
A similar initiative is also known in the NAEN EGTC established by the regions Nouvelle-Aquitaine (FR), Euskadi and Navarra (ES). The grouping promotes the mobility of students and professors with an annual budget of EUR 60,000. Leyre Azcona, acting director of the EGTC, also spoke about the infrastructural objectives (development of the cross-border railway), the strategic partnership of the chambers of commerce (the so-called BIHARTEAN initiative), the Euroregional Citizenship fund, the personalised program targeting the cross-border commuters, and their efforts to foster multilingualism in the border area.
Due to his health conditions, Jacobo Ramírez, director of the Pirineos-Pyrénées EGTC, held his presentation online. The grouping, which was established in 2020 through the merger of two previously created EGTCs and an infrastructural nonprofit enterprise, focuses on the maintenance of cross-border mountain passes and a tunnel, prevents landslides in the Pyrenees, and tackles the impacts of climate change in an integrated manner.
Xavier Bernard-Sans, secretary general of the Euroregion Pyrenees Mediterranean EGTC, was rather focused on the relevance and urgency of networking between the EGTCs. The Iberian and the Hungarian EGTCs represent nearly 40% of the total number of the groupings, which gives a special significance to the joint actions, he pointed out. Through this, the EGTCs may become more visible at national and European levels and be given a stronger advocacy in the policy-making processes.
The afternoon session gave the opportunity to 6 EGTCs operating along the Hungarian borders to introduce.
Mrs Julianna Máté, director of the Via Carpatia EGTC, gave a comprehensive picture of the grouping’s activities. She spoke about the management of the small project fund of the Interreg Hungary-Slovakia programmes, which raised a high interest on behalf of the Iberian partners, where this solution is not applied. She also explained the achievements of the EGTC in the fields of elderly care and international cooperation.
Mr Bence Sárossy, director of the MURABA EGTC, introduced the special situation of the Hungarian-Slovenian border, where the ethnic minorities are present on both sides. The two governments established a fund to support the survival and flourishing of these small ethnic communities, which is managed by the EGTC, among many other activities.
Mrs Andrea Szabóné Cap, director of the Hungarian-Ukrainian Tisza EGTC, which was the first grouping involving a third-country entity, highlighted the role of the grouping in the EUisation of Ukrainian EGTC legislation and environmental policy, as well as in the delivery of humanitarian aid during the war. Today, the EGTC manages 5 projects concentrating on multilingualism, spatial planning, networking, border infrastructure and waste management.
Mrs Judit Füzér, deputy director of the Hungarian-Slovenian-Croatian-Bosnian Pannon EGTC, not only introduced the grouping but also mentioned the EU integration process of the Western Balkans countries, highlighting the role the EGTC can play within it. The EGTC’s members include local and regional authorities, a national park, one Hungarian, three Bosnian and two Croatian universities, which, among others, enables the entity to start training courses facilitating EU integration in the Western Balkans.
Mr Tamás Németh, director of the Arrabona EGTC, referred to their plans to visit the Iberian EGTCs, which had already been defined before the present workshop. He highlighted the role of their EGTC in the cross-border integration of tourism offers. The grouping manages 45-60 projects on a yearly basis, the majority of which are projects of its members. At the same time, beside this “regional development agency” role, the EGTC realises numerous cross-border projects, especially based on the natural and cultural assets of the cross-border area.
The last speaker was Mr Péter Nagy, director of the Ister-Granum EGTC, who, in his presentation, gave a special emphasis to the cross-border brand and the network of local producers of the larger cross-border region. One of the main missions of the EGTC is to promote the sustainability of these environmentally sound crafts and to integrate the slow tourist supply of the region sustainably.
During the debate, and especially the dinner following the two sessions, the partners started a lively discussion enabling the identification of potential joint initiatives and projects, which gave hope that the workshop was really just the first one in a row.
Honlapunk a Külgazdasági és Külügyminisztérium támogatásával készült.
