What is European Territorial Cooperation ?

"More growth and jobs for all regions and cities of the European Union." This is the message which is at the heart of the programming period 2014-2020 for Cohesion Policy and its instruments. European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) has now been introduced as a fully-fledged objective of Cohesion Policy.

With a Community contribution of almost EUR 7.8 billion for the sole internal borders, European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) has reached a new scale and now comprehends 53 cross-border programmes, 13 transnational programmes, one interregional programme and three networking programmes.

The 3 dimensions of the ETC Objective:

Cross-border Cooperation:

Helps transform regions located on either side of internal or external borders of the European Union into strong economic and social poles. In particular cross-border actions are encouraged in the fields of entrepreneurship, improving joint management of natural resources, supporting links between urban and rural areas, improving access to transport and communication networks, developing joint use of infrastructure, administrative cooperation and capacity building, employment, community interaction, culture and social affairs.

Transnational Cooperation:

Promotes cooperation among greater European regions, including the ones surrounding sea basins (e.g. Baltic Sea Region, North Sea, Mediterranean and Atlantic Area) or mountain ranges (e.g. Alpine Space) and facilitates coordinated strategic responses to joint challenges like flood management, transport and communication corridors, international business and research linkages, urban development and others. Special attention is given to outermost and island regions (e.g. Indian Ocean, Caribbean Area or Northern Periphery).

Interregional Cooperation:

Provides a framework for the exchange of experiences between local and regional actors from across Europe in order to contribute to the EU’s strategies on growth, jobs and sustainable development. In addition, it aims at reducing disparities by matching less experienced regions with more advanced regions in the various policy fields such as innovation, demographic change, energy supply and climate change.