Between 6 and 9 June, the elections for the European Parliament will be held. The elections are an important moment for the direction and future of the development of border regions and cross-border cooperation. Border regions are the living labs of EU integration, where both the positive and negative or missing elements of European cooperation is felt on a daily basis. In the party manifestos, political parties formulate their plans for the future of the European Union, and directly or indirectly shape cross-border cooperation and the development of border regions. What are the plans of the different political parties regarding border regions as so-called living labs? What are the effects for the border regions? Ahead of the elections, we analysed the European Manifestos of the different political groups in the European Parliament. Also fuelled with data from national programmes, we reflect on the dimension of border regions and cross-border cooperation.
The main conclusions of the Reflection:
✅ Cohesion funds and in particular the future of Interreg hardly discussed
✅ Border regions not understood as a special type of territory
✅ Internal market without attention of specific needs of functioning cross-border
markets
✅ Cross-border infrastructure: support for better rail connection but without clear
policy proposals
✅ Energy transition: no mention of obstacles in border regions
✅ Schengen: conditions for the reintroduction of border controls
