EU financial supports for cross-border co-operations: internal borders

1. EU financial supports for cross-border co-operations: internal borders (1)

24 March 2022

2. Interreg programmes 1990-2020: historical perspective

the initiative dates back to the mid-1980s resulting from the crisis in the
steel industry (affecting border areas of Luxembourg, Belgium and
France)
creation of the European Development Pole (1985): a joint response to the
redevelopment of a trinational area
Interreg
programmes
1990-2020:
historical
perspective
since 1987, the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR), founded
in 1971, has been engaged in talks with the Commission and Members of
the European Parliament with the aim of proposing long-term projects
backed by European financial support in border regions
a community initiative programme (CIP) with the objective of forging links
between neighbouring local actors on both sides of a national frontier
between Member States.
is intended to reduce the obstacle to relations and exchanges that the
border represents
four generations of programmes, lasting from four to seven years (since
1990) and a fifth phase, which began in 2014, will be completed in 2020
since 2007, European territorial cooperation (ETC) has been a fully fledged
objective of cohesion policy
the Interreg CIP programmes, and later those of the ETC objective (which
continue to go under the name of Interreg) aim at integration at various
scales (cross-border, transnational and interregional) within the
framework of decentralised management, using a standard, sharedmanagement approach

3. Interreg programmes 1990-2020: geographical perspective and strands

the regions in question are peripheral areas within countries,
where the economy depends on the presence of the border
Interreg
programmes
1990-2020:
geographical
perspective
and strands
the programme is aimed as much at mitigating the undesirable
effects of the opening of the borders that took place in 1993 as at
overcoming national differences
The three strands of Interreg (beginning with Interreg II)
Strands
A. Cross-border
Spatial
emphasis
Integration
Stakeholder level
Proximity
Contiguity
Local, regional
B. Transnational
Cohesion
Planning as the
Regional,
overarching theme
supraregional,
(transport, environment,
national
etc.)
C. Interregional
Network
Interactions
Regional,
supraregional, local
Sources: INTERACT, The Community Initiative INTERREG; LRDP LTD, Ex-post
Evaluations

4. Interreg projects, phases and ERDF funding totals

EU regions participating in cross-border co-operation 1989-2013
Source: European Territorial Cooperation: Building bridges between people, September 2011
Interreg projects, phases and ERDF funding totals
Interreg
Phase
Number of
Programmes
Funding amount Number of
(million euro in EU Member
real terms)
States
0
1988-1989
14 pilot
projects
0.021
I
1990-1993
31
1.082
12
II
1994-1999
59
3.500
15
III
2000-2006
79
5.100
25
(after 2004)
IV
2007-2013
92
7.800
27
V
2014-2020
100
10.100
28
Sources: INTERACT, The Community Initiative INTERREG; LRDP LTD, Ex-post
Evaluations

5. Interreg 0 (1988-1989): piloting period

14 pilot projects
located primarily in the six founding Member States
funding: 21 million ECU
legal basis: Article 10 of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF)
considered a success and smoothed the way for the establishment of the
Interreg programme
introduced a territorial dimension into regional policy by identifying the
border regions of the EU-12 Member States as territories whose
geographical location gave rise to specific characteristics
could not be applied across the board to all frontiers, particularly those that
formed the external borders of EU-12
eligible areas: essentially those NUTS 3 (Nomenclature of Territorial Units for
Statistics) (1) areas separated by a land or maritime border
project selection criteria:
the involvement of at least two stakeholders situated on either side of a frontier in
the areas eligible for the programme
co-financing by different partners
independent management (a managing authority handles all interaction with
the Commission)
and management control exercised by the Member States in question, under
the Commission’s supervision.

6. Interreg I (1990-1993): overview

through this financial instrument the European Union
acknowledged the role of cross-border co-operations in the
deepening of the integration processes
funded from several sources:
Interreg I
(1990-1993):
overview
the majority of the support derives from the Structural Funds (ERDF,
ASF)
but an additional proportion is contributed by the Member States on
the national, regional and local levels: the size of co-financing for
Member States was 50%
31 Operational Programmes were approved
diverse range of border regions and experiences of crossborder co-operations within the European Union:
Operational Programmes along the internal and external borders of
the EU
underdeveloped Objective 1 regions and “core” regions of the EU
regions with experience of local and regional cross-border cooperation and structures (“bottom-up” programmes) and those with a
more centralised national approach to cross-border co-operation
(“top-down” programmes)

7. Interreg I (1990-1993): financial considerations

total EU contribution: 1 082 million
euro
projects were funded across a wide
range of sectors such as
Sectoral distribution of projects supported by Interreg I
transport and communications,
environment,
business,
tourism,
rural development
and training
ratio of joint projects in the fields of
environmental protection and rural
development: relatively low in the
first period of the programme
mainly the consequence of the
harmonisation with the Objective
areas
Source: based on data by von Malchus

8. Interreg II (1994-1999): introducing strands

the Interreg IIA Programme represented only a small proportion within the
total budget of the EU (1.5%)
Interreg IIA Programme separated 2 565 million euro for the 1994-1999
programming period to support all those NUTS 3 regions which lie along the
internal or external borders of the EU
Interreg II
(1994-1999):
introducing
strands
1.
Interreg IIA as the main strand on cross-border co-operation – with a total
EU allocation of 2 565 million euro (see Table below)
2.
Interreg IIB aimed to complete selected energy networks (former Regen
Initiative) and had been allocated 550 million euro
3.
Interreg IIC was introduced in 1996 aiming at the support of transnational
co-operation actions on spatial planning and other fields, and received an
allocation of 413 million euro
Financial distribution of Interreg IIA (1994-1999, million euro)

9. Interreg IIA (1994-1999): new support areas

in addition to the existing ones,
the programme introduced new
support areas, namely:
health care
language teaching
culture
infrastructural developments
Interreg IIA
(1994-1999):
new support
areas
co-operation in the field of
public utilities (water, gas and
electricity supplies, sewage
treatment)
cross-border spatial planning
Distribution of Interreg IIA supports along the borders with
countries receiving Phare allocation (1994-99, by sectors, %)

10. Interreg II (1994-1999): implementation mechanism

• Operational
Programmes (OPs):
contract-based
programmes for the
border regions of the
Member States
• the implementation of
the OPs is the
responsibility of socalled operative
committees
Implementation mechanism of the Interreg Programmes

11. Interreg IIA (1994-1999): geographical location

Map and list of Interreg IIA programmes
Source: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/sources/docgener/evaluation/inter2a/map_inter2a.pdf

12. Interreg IIA (1994-1999): significance

the first initiative to incorporate all border regions along the internal
and external borders of the EU
the breakdown of the OPs demonstrates the increasing importance of the
external EU border:
Interreg IIA
(1994-1999):
significance
35 programmes were related to internal EU borders and
24 concerned the external ones (Central European countries, Russia,
Norway Switzerland, Cyprus, and Morocco).
stronger emphasis on co-operations across maritime borders
a total of 16 (of which 11 along internal borders) maritime OPs were
supported under Interreg IIA – compared to having only 4 under Interreg I
EU funds for OPs in some Objective 1 regions exceeded 100 million
euro
largest: the Spanish-Portuguese (552 million euro) and the Greek external
borders (310 million euro)
these two border regions had the largest budget in the history of Interreg IIA.
At the same time, 30 programmes received ‘only’ 5-25 million euro

13. Interreg III (2000-2006): largest Community Initiative

part of the Lisbon strategy: ”to become the most competitive
region in the world by 2010”
and part of the territorial strategy outlined in the 1999 ESDP
addressed the prospective enlargements of 2004 and 2007 with
the first Phare Programme (Poland and Hungary: Assistance for
Restructuring their Economies) as well as the borders with Russia
and Finland through the Tacis Programme (Technical Assistance to
the Commonwealth of Independent States)
covered all the internal and external border regions of EU-15 and
then EU-25 after 2004

14. Interreg III (2000-2006): three strands

1.
Interreg IIIA cross-border co-operations – a continuation of
Interreg I and Interreg IIA: cross-border co-operation between
neighbouring authorities to develop cross-border economic
and social centres through joint strategies for sustainable
territorial development
2.
Interreg IIIB transnational co-operation – an extension of
Interreg IIC: between national, regional and local authorities –
to promote a higher degree of territorial integration across
large groupings of European regions with a view to achieve
sustainable, harmonious and balanced development in the
Community and better territorial integration with candidate
and other neighbouring countries
3.
Interreg IIIC interregional co-operation – a new strand which
corresponds to an extension and possibly widening of the field
of co-operation previously covered by the RECITE and EcosOverture type programmes: to improve the effectiveness of
policies and instruments for regional development and
cohesion through networking
Interreg III
(2000-2006):
three strands

15. Interreg III (2000-2006): financial allocations

The allocated funds were defined for all Member States on the
basis of the number of the population of the border regions
along the external EU borders, the peripheral regions and the
regions neighbouring Central and Eastern Europe. Minimum 50%
of this had to be spent on cross-border co-operations, 14% on
transnational co-operations and 6% on interregional cooperations.
Altogether 53 projects were approved under Interreg IIIA. The
European Commission found it especially important the actions
to be implemented in the NUTS 3 regions located along the
border in the case of the infrastructural investments.
The European Commission set it as its aim for the 2000-2006
budgetary period to help the coordination of all other instruments
with Interreg IIIA so as to support mirror projects in the
(candidate) countries adjacent to the EU.

16. Interreg IIIA (2000-2006): eligibility

All NUTS 3 regions situated along the
internal or external land borders of the
EU, and certain NUTS 3 maritime regions
were eligible for support within the
framework of Interreg IIIA. In some cases,
NUTS 3 regions adjacent to the regions
mentioned above were also eligible for
funding. This was also true for areas which
were not classified as NUTS 3 regions but
were enclosed by NUTS 3 regions that lay
along a border or in a region where such
areas adjoined others running along
borders. In both cases, eligibility for
funding was granted, provided they did not
account for more than 20% of the total
spending for the OP concerned.
NUTS 3 regions eligible for Interreg IIIA
Source: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/archive/interreg3/down/pdf/europe.pdf

17. Interreg IIIA (2000-2006): expanded priorities

The priorities of Interreg IIIA have been expanded in comparison with those
of the previous two programming periods and became more specific:
promotion of urban, rural and coastal development
strengthening the spirit of enterprise
Interreg IIIA
(2000-2006):
expanded
priorities
developing small and medium-sized enterprises, including those in the
tourism sector
developing local employment initiatives
assistance for labour market integration and social inclusion
initiatives for encouraging shared use of human resources and facilities for
research and development, education, culture, communication, health and
civil protection
measures for environmental protection, improving energy efficiency and
renewable energy resources
improving transport, information and communication networks and
services, water and energy systems
increasing co-operation in legal and administrative areas
increasing human and institutional potential for cross-border co-operation

18.

Strands
A. Cross-border
B. Transnational
C. Interregional
Stakeholder level
Integration level
Spatial emphasis