Cohesion and competitiveness: Europe pushes cross-border cooperation

Regional and cohesion policies are to receive one third of the European budget: that is, for the period 2021-2027, the sum of 392 billion euros. This is the figure with which Europe will still face its territorial challenges for a couple of years. Just last week the European Commission's vice-president for regional and cohesion policy, Raffaele Fitto, presented to the European Parliament the proposal for the mid-term review of the policy 2021-2027, which - following more or less recent events, from the Russian-Ukrainian conflict to the positions of US president Donald Trump - will allow states and regions to adapt their programmes to the new challenges, opening the door to the use of funds for investments in defence and security..

In fact, there was already an adaptation of the use of funds for cohesion in 2022: 150 million euro of the European Fund for Regional Development (ERDF), destined for the Interreg programmes between the member states and Russia and Belarus, which were immediately interrupted, had been transferred by the EU Commission to the war-affected territories. "In that case we adapted the instrument to the need," said Vice-President Fitto on the occasion of the annual Interreg event, held in Gorizia on 27 and 28 March, "We must continue to do so, to make cooperation work and to give people the right to stay in the areas where they live, especially across borders, improving defence, public service, health".

Also because, greater cooperation and greater cohesion lead the regions, and thus the whole of Europe, to be more competitive and resilient. "This is a political battle," said Vice-President of the Europarliament, Younous Omarjee. The European Union, Schengen, were built on the dismantling of borders. Defending the crossing of borders, at a time when some countries are thinking of rebuilding walls, means defending Europe, its values and its ability to resist'.

Among the various cohesion policy funds - the ERDF, the European Social Fund (ESF) and the Just transition fund (Jtf) - it is above all the regional development fund that finances cooperation projects on the ground, through the ten billion euro allocated to the Interreg 2021-27 programmes. These 86 programmes involve one or more states, both European and non-European. Italy is involved in 19 of them, with investments amounting to over 3.1 billion euro (of which 2.5 billion from European funds).

Some of these programmes have been active for some time: this is the case of Interreg Alpine Space, which also involves France, Germany, Liechtenstein, Austria, Slovenia and Switzerland. Active since 2000 to improve the quality of life of the 80 million inhabitants of the Alpine region, in the current period 2021-2027 it is at the forefront of the transition to a single, carbon-neutral and climate-resilient European territory with a funding of EUR 107 million.