Martin Unfried - Provincie Oost-Vlaanderen – Euregio Scheldemond, BE-NL

The Provincie Oost-Vlaanderen – Euregio Scheldemond submitted the case “Cross-border transport of CO2 as a resource for industrial processes” under the initiative b-solutions to draw the attention on the difficulties faced by the North Sea Port in building a cross-border pipeline infrastructure connecting companies in the Netherlands and Belgium alike. Because the two countries have different standards for the planning and permissions of pipelines, the plan is stalled.

Martin Unfried analysed the two national legislations regulating standards for the planning, permitting and the construction of pipelines transporting CO2. He found out that national legislations delegate the spatial planning to actors at different levels, which leads to diverging criteria concerning the use of land at different scales (municipal, provincial, regional).

Among the solutions suggested by Martin Unfried to facilitate the building of common pipelines in the cross-border regions are:

• amendments to the “Guide for cross-border planning consultations between Flanders and the Netherlands” (2012) to facilitate the mandatory cross-border consultation among the Benelux members;
• the creation of a consortium of key actors from both sides of the border to discuss a detailed needs-analysis for area of the North Sea Port;
• the planning of a special “governance” project in the framework of the new INTERREG programming period to test new governance solutions.

The full report “Cross-border transport of CO2 as a resource for industrial processes” here attached will provide more detailed information on this particular case.

The information here provided have been developed in the framework of b-solutions, an initiative of the European Comission’s DG REGIO managed by the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR).

The reports here included are the result of a consultation provided by legal/cross-border cooperation experts on obstacles of a legal or administrative nature - referred to as Advice Cases - selected in the framework of the II Call for Proposals of the initiative b-solutions.