European perspective

Border areas are historically often peripheral in the various states and often has weaker development compared to the central parts of the nation state. This generates a need to find new and alternative forms for establishing cross-border cooperation has kept pace with the growing EU integration process.

One of the forms used in order to manage cross-border cooperation is what is known as Euroregions. The form is used throughout Europe, but often faces problems. After an initiative from the Council of Europe, the so-called Madrid Convention of 1980 however gave sub-national bodies the right to maintain international contacts. The discussions led to Regulation No 1082/2006 of the Council and the European Parliament of 5 July 2006 that opened up for the possibility to create a special legal body for cross-border cooperation, namely European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation.

The purpose of this report is to describe the EGTC instrument from a legal and political perspective, with special consideration to the legal aspects. We have also chosen to describe the origin of EGTC in order to illustrate how it has grown relatively fast. Then we will put forward how the EGTC tool is used in other cross-border regions today and how it could be used in future co-operations. However, the EGTC is a relatively new tool and therefore it is difficult to draw any extensive conclusions at this early stage.