EU level

The adoption, in July 2006, of the Regulation establishing a European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation, was both a major change in the legal framework for territorial cooperation, and an understandable evolution thereof. It was a major change because it is the first Community instrument with regulatory scope in the field. It was also a change because it brought this cooperation between authorities located in different European states, which had hitherto by its nature been a fringe phenomenon, to the heart of the integration process.

The study describes the emergence and challenges of the legal framework for European cooperation between regional authorities before the EGTC and the potential of territorial cooperation from 2007, like legal framework, legal implications of implementing the EGTC Regulation and the position of the various players vis-à-vis the new legal instrument for European territorial cooperation.