Building a Europe united by cross-border cooperation
“European territorial cooperation” is one of the three objectives that the European Union set itself within the framework of its “Cohesion Policy” (successor to “Regional policy”), the two others being the objectives of “Convergence” and of “Regional competitiveness and employment”.
European territorial cooperation, financed by theEuropean Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is broken down into Strand (A) cross-border cooperation covering territorial cooperation projects close to the national borders, Strand (B) transnational cooperation covering projects of larger scope both geographically and in the nature of the activities and investments, and Strand (C) interregional cooperation covering all the regions of Europe and focused above all on creating networks and exchanging experiences essentially between cities and regions. Each of the sections consists of programmes each covering a specific geographical area intended to supportprojects that meet theirobjectives, with each project required to have aninternational partnership.
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As an example, for the current programming period (2007-2013), the programmes covering a part or the whole of Belgium are: Cross-border strand: Interreg IVA France-Wallonia-Flanders, Interreg IVAGrande-Région, Interreg IVA Euregio-Meuse-Rhine and Interreg IVA Vlaanderen Nederland Transational strand: Interreg IVB Northwest Europe , and Interreg IVB NorthSea Interregional strand: Interreg IVC, URBACT, INTERACTand ESPON/ORATE
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At the level of Wallonia, this objective was expressed during the period 2000-2006 in 273 cooperation projects succeeding in the areas of urban development, economic relations and networking SMEs, research/development, information/communication technologies and environmental technologies, and risk prevention (e.g. in the area of water), not to omit cooperation in the area of culture and of education and training.
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Two example of projects 2000-2006: the Pro-Bois project of forestry eco-certification and development of the wood sector (Project Leader: the non-profit organisation VALBOIS asbl located in St-Hubert) and the DIPCity cooperation project between the interior ports (above all Paris, Lille, Brussels and Liege) in areas such as waste management, integration in the city, the logistics chain and security (Project Leader: the Port of Brussels). |
For the 2007-2013 period, the number of projects supported will be on the same order of magnitude, with a greater orientation toward the economy/jobs sector in conformity with the wishes of the “Lisbon” and “Vision 2020 for Europe” strategies.
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Two examples of 2007-2013 projects: the REGAIN projecton the appropriation by the private sector of innovative sustainable products and services in industrial real estate (Project Leader: the BEP – Economic Office of the Province of Namur) and the GreenCook cooperation project for reducing food wastage and making the ENO area a model for sustainable food management (Project Leader: Espace-environnement asbl, Charleroi). |
