The 21st edition of the Beyond Borders: Breakfast Debates, organised by the Border Focal Point Network, was successfully held on the morning of December 12th, 2024. The debate focused on the presentation of the ACROSS (Data and Analyses for CROSS-border regions) project, a cooperation between DG REGIO and the Joint Research Centre (JRC), and the new Data Hub for EU Border Regions, a platform offering harmonised geospatial data and socioeconomic indicators in crucial areas such as public transport, healthcare, and cross-border governance.
Our esteemed host, Lord Andrew Lansley, moderated the discussion, welcoming the participants and the five speakers, introducing the topic of data availability and highlighting the limitations to data access and previous initiatives led by the European Commission, and announcing the live demonstration of the ACROSS Data Hub for EU Border Regions during the debate.
Ricardo Ferreira, Planning and Programming Officer, Coordinator of Border Focal Point, DG REGIO, opened the debate by discussing the longstanding demand for cross-border data to address gaps in statistics that fail to account for interactions across borders. To address this demand, the European Commission has emphasised the importance of border regions as engines of development and integration. While various project-based data initiatives have been undertaken since 2015 (e.g., on healthcare, commuters, and COVID impacts), these lacked sustainability. The goal now is to establish a unified EU data hub for border regions, ensuring sustainability and providing administrations with tools for better policymaking and fostering awareness of border effects. The ACROSS project, supported by the JRC, is designed to evolve continuously with new data and interactions, promoting development in cross-border regions.
Alessandro Rainoldi, Head of JRC Unit B.3, highlighted the importance of the EU Data Hub for Border Regions emphasising its goal to provide reliable, comparable, and easily accessible data from a single-entry point. The partnership between DG REGIO and the JRC aims to create a sustainable, continuously evolving tool to support evidence-based policymaking and address challenges in border regions. The hub integrates official statistics with granular and big data sources to provide a holistic understanding of border regions, considering their diverse phenomena and interactions. Alessandro encourages debate participants to offer feedback to further improve and expand the hub’s capabilities over time.

Then, the floor was given to Matteo Berzi, Expert, JRC. Matteo again emphasised the importance of mapping cross-border interactions and socio-economic trends in EU border regions to support institutions, policymakers, and stakeholders. Reliable, accessible, and comparable data is essential for programming, monitoring, and academic research, particularly in the field of border studies. The data hub categorises border regions into distinct geographical scales, evaluates datasets based on criteria that include coverage, reliability, and future updateability, and provides indicators derived from the datasets, offering new insights into border regions. While focusing on fixed geometries for now, future efforts aim to expand data visualisations to capture wider perspectives. The ACROSS platform will make these datasets and tools accessible to users via an interactive map.
Moving on to a live demonstration of the Data Hub, Matteo illustrated that the platform provides accessible, comparable, and interactive data to support policymakers, researchers, and local authorities. The platform features two main map views: one focusing on specific border regions and another offering a pan-European perspective. Users can explore indicators on cross-border interactions, such as public services, healthcare projects, and governance, with tools to customise visualisations, compare regions, and download data in various formats. The hub integrates statistical and geospatial data, making it easier to analyse trends like population changes, rail performance, and healthcare initiatives. As it is designed for flexibility and wide accessibility, it aims to enhance understanding of cross-border dynamics while preparing for future updates and expanded datasets.
Then, it was the turn of two stakeholders to provide their insights on the ACROSS Data Hub. First was Andreea China, Research & Policy Manager, ESPON EGTC. Andreea highlighted the value of the ACROSS Data Hub and its relevance for cross-border cooperation and policymaking. She emphasised the growing need for harmonised and updated quantitative and qualitative data to address the increasing complexity of cross-border interactions, particularly in light of challenges like the COVID-19 pandemic and the war in Ukraine. She underscored two persistent issues: the lack of harmonised definitions and methodologies and data-sharing restrictions. Andreea shared insights from notable ESPON projects and praised the ACROSS Data Hub as a cornerstone initiative, integrating data from various providers like ESPON and enhancing comparability and standardisation for improved decision-making and cross-border collaboration.
Finaly, Romina Kocina, Director, EGTC GO, highlighted challenges in cross-border cooperation, including healthcare integration, shared public space management, and public transport services. While EGTC GO has made progress through projects like infrastructure development and fostering collaboration, barriers such as differing administrative systems and unaligned data collection hinder further advancements. She emphasised the need for a common cross-border data hub to support better policy alignment and decision-making at the municipal level.
During the debate, a lively discussion was held on the debate's chat function and a substantial amount of questions, insights and comments were offered to the meeting participants. At the end of the debate, the moderator, Lord Andrew Lansley, informed the debate participants of the launch event for the Handbook on Cross-Border Energy Communities that will be hosted by DG REGIO on January 20th, 2025 in its premises in Brussels, thanked all speakers and participants and closed the debate.
The two poll questions that were featured on the debate were:
1. What do you see as the biggest challenge to sharing data across borders?
2. What other data would you like to see on the Data Hub for EU Border Regions?
We invite you to explore the ACROSS platform and make use of its extensive resources.
You can download debate presentations below!