The European Spatial Planning Observation Network (ESPON) is a research programme aimed at supporting the formulation of territorial development policies in Europe. The goal of their recent report on Cross-border Public Services (CPS) is to improve the delivery practices of CPS in border-regions and to publicise the advantages to be gained by CPS. The report includes an overview of current CPS, identifying 579 along European borders; it explores the main features of good practice and presents ten in-depth case studies. The range of topics that can be addressed by CPS, including environment protection, civil protection, and disaster management and transport, means that CPS are valuable to all sorts of border territories and can help remedy their respective issues. Typical challenges for CPS development not only hint at problems such as unfavourable legal and administrative framework conditions and cultural divides but also indicate a low awareness of the added value and the variety of possible solutions to establishing a CPS. Sharing knowledge about these examples and their benefits is therefore an important step in promoting CPS, and this project acts as an important step in this direction. 

Read the reports: https://www.espon.eu/CPS  

The reports are the results of the 2018 project. They are currently being updated.