What do we mean by

European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC for short)?

EGTC is an independent legal entity ensuring the most developed institutional framework for the cross-border cooperation activities of European local and regional authorities.

According to EU regulations:

-Member States or national authorities, regional and local authorities, public undertakings as defined by the Public Procurement Directive, public law institutions, and enterprises entrusted with the operation of services of general economic interest, as well as

-National, regional, or local authorities of non-EU “third countries”, or enterprises and institutions in third countries that are equivalent to public undertakings or public law institutions in EU Member States, may establish a European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) with each other, provided that the participating partners are based in at least two EU Member States or in one EU Member State and one third country, subject to certain additional conditions.

Informal level of cooperation

The first, informal level of cooperation used to be initiated by local actors (mayors, civil society leaders, teachers, heads of different institutions, ordinary citizens) and the cooperation itself is defined by geographic proximity and/or common natural/historic heritage. At this starting period, cooperation is rather spontaneous and flexible, it has no fixed agenda nor steady institutional background.

Thanks to the proliferating encounters and exchanges, many local cooperating actors may recognise the complementary advantages of the two neighbouring border areas; and the potential benefits of stronger collaboration, the share of burdens and fruits, and the positive impacts of economies of scale. This second level of cooperation can be defined as functional-territorial, since, unlike the informal level, the actors are working together according to a clear territorially-based agenda along different functional fields. The subject of functions can range from information provision, cultural, or sports activities through joint nature protection, employment services or tourist management to shared transport or health service provision. However, in each above case, sooner or later, the stakeholders will confront serious legal and administrative bottlenecks stemming from different national legislative systems. This crisis arrives as soon as the partners start cooperating in a more integrated manner.

Normative level of cooperation

Accordingly, the evolution of cooperation will result in the rise of the normative level, the level of institutionalised and regulated cross-border cooperation. It is not a coincidence that the representatives of borderlands and embryonic CBC structures have always lobbied for a Community level solution that can ensure their long-term sustainability, stabilise their operation and create a favourable and predictable environment for their daily work. Here, the bottom-up initiatives inevitably need top-down intervention: the assistance of national and Community level legislation enabling the creation and operation of real cross-border institutions.

The history of institutional cross-border cooperation started in the second half of the 1950s. It was in 1958 when the first structure, the German-Dutch EUREGIO was established.

The 1970s brought along the renaissance of cross-border cooperation. Numerous structures emerged applying diverse institutional solutions like the committee (e.g. East Border Region Committee between Ireland and the UK – 1976), the council (e.g. Finnish-Swedish-Norwegian North Calotte Council – 1971), the working community (e.g. Arbeitsgemeinschaft Alpenländer – 1972), the euroregion (e.g. Dutch-Belgian-German Meuse-Rhine Euroregion – 1976).

2004

In 2004, based on the initiative taken by the European Committee of the Regions and the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR) under the coordination of then President of the European Commission, Michel Barnier the development of the legal background of a new sort of European territorial cooperation started.

What do we mean by

What is the general aim of

The EGTC

Informal level of cooperation

Functional-territorial level of cooperation

Normative level of cooperation

This is the EGTC tool.

Brief history of

1950’s

1970’s

1980’s

1990’s

2004

2006

2007

2008

2013

2014

2020

2024