The first structured forms of cross-border cooperation, understood as cooperation between territorial communities across national borders, date back to the 1950s, after the Second World War. The need to go beyond national borders to solve common problems between border regions, and at the same time emphasize the key role of local communities, have meant that these spontaneous forms of cooperation have been encouraged and supported from the beginning of the Council of Europe. The Interreg program has supported cross-border cooperation since 1990. It was established following the first reform of the structural funds, which defined for the first time a genuine European policy of economic and social cohesion. Since then the program has undergone important evolutions, extending its range of action to the transnational and interregional cooperation components. Today Interreg represents the heart of all European territorial cooperation initiatives.
The EU also supports territorial cooperation initiatives which also involve its own external borders. In this context, an important wealth of experience and knowledge has been developed in particular since 2007, through the definition of programs with the countries of the Western Balkans in the process of pre-accession and with the countries of the European, Eastern and Mediterranean neighborhood. European territorial cooperation is one of the priority objectives of cohesion policy, and represents an important tool for pursuing a harmonious and balanced development of the Union’s territory; however, Interreg is affected by some constraints that limit its impact. Among these, the small financial dimension and the limited ability to activate synergies with other funds; the fragmentation and scarce synergy between different programs that insist on the same areas; the difficulty in intervening on the different legal and administrative systems, which in many situations limit the implementation of joint interventions.
The European Commission appears to be aware of these limits, and has implemented a series of proposals and initiatives aimed at overcoming them for the 2021-2027 programming period. The challenge now shifts to their operational translation. Meanwhile, the Covid-19 pandemic has had a strong impact on cross-border and territorial cooperation. For example, a lot of attention has attracted cooperation in the health sector, of which limits and opportunities have clearly emerged. On the other hand, the suspension of Schengen, often suddenly and unilaterally adopted by several Member States as a measure to contain the spread of the virus, has highlighted a certain fragility of cooperation processes at a sub-state scale, emphasizing the centrality of the States. in border management. The cross-border Regions and local authorities, despite the significant differences between territories, reacted on the one hand by coordinating on a local scale to react to the emergency; on the other, by collectively calling for greater safeguarding of cooperation across borders. The outcome of these processes, in terms of overall strengthening or weakening of territorial cooperation in the European context, is still uncertain.
* (ISSIRFA CNR)