The Association of European Border Regions (AEBR) and DG Regio are currently assessing the applications received during the call for proposals launched under the pilot initiative b-solutions.  44 cases of obstacles to cross-border cooperation have been submitted: public bodies and cross-border structures from all over Europe showed their interest in sharing the difficulties they encounter in their border regions.

b-solutions aims at tackling legal and administrative border obstacles along EU internal borders. To do so, a call for proposals offered practitioners and policy-makers the possibility to inform the European Commission and AEBR about obstacles identified while cooperating with their neighbours.

The call for proposals has been structured along the thematic areas defined in the communication “Boosting Growth and Cohesion in European Border Regions” adopted by the EU Commission on 20th September 2017, namely: eGovernment, Employment, Evidence and Data, Health, Information Services, Institutional Cooperation, Multi-lingualism, Transport. Among the forty-four cases submitted, the thematic area in which most of the obstacles are identified is institutional cooperation. Yet, many are the legislations that are hampering cooperation also in the field of public transport of passengers and employment.

EGTCs, regional authorities, municipalities and euroregions from fifteen European countries participated in the call. Difficulties to cooperate have been detected on twenty-one different internal borders and two EFTA countries, stretching from Portugal to the eastern borders of the Union, from Norway to Italy and Greece.

The thirty-five winning cases that will be identified by the Selection Committee will be granted support from an expert in legal/administrative matters in order to elaborate a possible solution for the obstacle described.

AEBR will announce the successful applications on this platform soon, and will share here more details on the cases. Follow b-solutions’ updates to learn about good-practices which could be applied in your region, too.