Crossing Borders

Cooperation across national borders is a means to enhance regional development and growth in border areas. Institutions, authorities and organisations on both sides of the border see that there is much to gain from cooperation and, sometimes, that it is even necessary to cooperate.

Cross-border cooperation is an important part of Nordic cooperation on regional policy. The Nordic Council of Ministers provides funding for 12 cross-border committees in different parts of the Nordic Countries. EU funding for cross-border and transnational cooperation projects through the European Territorial Cooperation programmes (also called INTERREG) also has a significant impact on Nordic cross-border cooperation.

The report was commissioned by the Nordic working group on globalisation and cross-border cooperation to describe and analyse the linkages between EU Cohesion policy focusing in particular on the European Territorial Cooperation Objective (ETC), the Nordic policy for cross-border cooperation and the Nordic cross-border committees. The target groups of the report include readers already familiar with the policy instruments used, both on the EU level and in the Nordic context, to enhance cross-border and territorial cooperation and those that are less familiar with the “world” of cross-border and territorial cooperation.