Title of the session: (b)-solutions to border obstacles

Date and time: Tuesday 13 October 2020, 14:30 - 16:00

Partners: Association of European Border Regions (AEBR) and European Commission

Theme: Cohesion and Cooperation

In occasion of the first digital #EURegionsWeek, the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR) in cooperation with the European Commission’s Border Focal Point has organised an online participatory lab to present the b-solutions initiative.

As one of the actions proposed in the European Commission’s Communication “Boosting Growth and Cohesion in EU Border Regions” b-solutions is a four year initiative started in 2017 with the aim of identifying border obstacles of a legal and administrative nature that hinder the cooperation along the EU internal land borders and to propose alternative and sustainable solutions to them.

After two successful calls for proposals in 2018 and 2019, b-solutions keeps running to offer further opportunities (https://www.b-solutionsproject.com/call-for-proposals).

In light of this, the session aims at promoting the initiative as a a tool to facilitate the work of administrative bodies and cross-border structures and to foster interactions across the boundaries by removing the existing hurdles to cooperation that arise because of non-harmonized legal/ administrative provisions and to facilitate the direct exchange among practitioners engaged in the same field.

During the first part of the event, three speakers - Kevin Bradley (Lawyer, Bradley International, UK), Ricardo Ferreira (EU Commission’s Border Focal Point) and Anna Cinzia Dellagiacoma (Project Manager, AEBR) – will discuss the obstacles and the relative solutions identified in the course of the past editions of b-solutions, giving specific attention to the lessons learned during the first phases of the action. Furthermore, they will introduce the policy recommendations deriving from the implementation of the first two calls for proposals in order to raise the attention of relevant actors at different levels on the problems experienced by border stakeholders. Finally they will share the latest news on b-solutions and give useful tips on how to get involved in the future stages of the action.

The second part of the session, following a peer-to-peer approach, will be entirely dedicated to foster the direct exchange of ideas and mutual learning among the participants.

Attendees will be divided in virtual thematic rooms that will cover six out of the eight thematic areas of the initiative. In particular, there will be two rooms dedicated to “Employment”, “Transport”, “Health”, “Institutional cooperation”, one on “eGovernment” and one last on “Multilingualism”.

There, representatives of previous successful cases and former legal experts will present obstacles and proposed solutions identified during the first edition of b-solutions and will moderate the discussion among the participating stakeholders by sharing direct experiences and answering to possible questions.

Therefore, participants will not only be provided with very practical examples but will also be given the occasion to strengthen their contacts and cooperation with other practitioners involved in the same field.

Moderators of the virtual rooms will be:

Martin Unfried, University of Maastricht (ITEM) – expert (Employment)

Tanja Vanhove, Euregio Scheldemond –advice case (Employment)

Michael Frey, lawer – expert (Transport)

Lioba Markl, Eudistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau – advice case (Transport)

Petia Tzvetanova, Mission Opérationnelle Transfrontalière (MOT)– expert (Health)

Gyula Ocskay, Central European Service for Cross-border Initiatives (CESCI) – expert (Institutional cooperation)

Michael Sohn, Quattropole e.V. – advice case (Institutional cooperation)

Ivan Curzolo, EGTC GO – advice case (eGovernment)

Michael Dejoze, Euregio Meuse-Rhine – advice case (Multilingualism)

To conclude, the event is as a useful opportunity for representatives of organisations involved in cross-border cooperation not only to become more familiar with the initiative b-solutions as a tool that can offer them a valuable help to their work, but also to get in direct touch with the European Commission and to raise their voice on the difficulties that they experience when interacting across the borders.

To attend the participatory lab, registration is open until 27 September at the following link: https://europa.eu/regions-and-cities/register_en

Code to register: 13PL1512V

Language of the event: ENGLISH