​​​​​​​​​​On 8 October, during the 2019 edition of the European Week of Regions and Cities, the European Alliance Group organized a workshop on the future of European Territorial Cooperation.

Keynote speaker of the workshop, chaired by EA Vice President Cllr Tony Buchanan from Scotland, was the CoR rapporteur on European Territorial Cooperation and Executive member of the Corsican regional authority Marie-Antoinette Maupertuis.

Ms Maupertuis outlined the CoR's commitment to work closely with the European Parliament to ensure the budget for traditional territorial cooperation is increased to approximately 3% of the cohesion budget. Moreover, she stated her and CoR opposition to moving maritime cross-border cooperation to a transnational component and reiterated that EU co-funding rates should be brought back to 85%. She also pointed out that investments on interregional innovation are important but they should not only give priority to excellence but also helpless innovative, as well as regions with handicaps to become involved in the drive to achieve European interregional innovation.

 

During the workshop, local and regional policy experts shared successful experiences and highlighted the importance of preserving cooperation programmes with high EU added value. Ms Anna Augustyn from Bialystok Functional Area presented an extensive list of successful projects between territorial self-government units in the fields of energy, mobility, and economy. Dr Francesc Bonet, Director of EGTC Hospital de Cerdanya showcased how cross-border cooperation can help overcome difficulties in providing healthcare services in remote and isolated areas between Catalonia and France. Finally, Carlo Badino, expert of the Valle D'Aosta region talked about the future of territorial cooperation through the implementation of macro-regional strategies exemplified by the EUSALP – the macro-regional strategy for the alpine area.