Europe is first of all a cross-border adventure. Nonetheless, the life of the 135 million citizens living in border regions is still severely affected by bureaucratic walls, invisible obstacles, and unacceptable denials of the opportunities Europe offers to all of us.

In the European Parliament, we are convinced that this is a blatant contradiction of what Europe should stand for. We want to eliminate this absurdity: this is why we launched a new legislative initiative, aiming at relaunching the negotiations on a new method enabling local and regional authorities to overcome bureaucratic obstacles. To reflect our ambition to dismantle walls and to build bridges between our territories, I have proposed to entitle the new instrument BridgEU: Border Regions’ Instrument for Development and Growth in the EU.
Photo: © European Union 2023 - Source : EP 
 
We are calling upon the European Commission to issue a revised legislative proposal on the basis of the 2018 proposal establishing a European Cross-border Mechanism. In 2018, the Council halted negotiations raising several issues and questioning some parts of the proposal. Now, we want to work hand in hand with Member States and this is why we have launched a new proposal taking into account all the major initial concerns of the Council. The most important: there are no strict obligations how to tackle cross-border obstacles.  BridgEU lays down procedures that can be triggered on a voluntary basis allowing regional or local actors, association of citizens and NGOs involved in the implementation of a cross-border project to signal an obstacle to a Cross-border coordination point set up at the Member State level. The Coordination point, which shall be established in each Member State, shall then assess within a given deadline whether the obstacle actually exists, and how to eliminate it.
 
We put forward a series of policy measures that the Cross-border coordination point can assess to overcome the obstacle, such as the review of the national legal or administrative framework, the adoption of soft-law measures, or the deferral of the matter to bodies established by a treaty regulating cross-border cooperation with the neighbouring country.
 
BridgEU envisages as well a specific course of action when the obstacle is caused by several regional and national acts, and therefore requires a higher level of coordination among authorities at different levels and on two sides of the border. In these circumstances, the Cross-border Coordination points of the Member States involved can set up a temporary Cross-border committee, where all competent authorities are invited to agree on tailor made measures (an ad-hoc solutions) to overcome the obstacle. A very pragmatic approach to reach our common goal: less obstacles, less bureaucracy and fast and pragmatic solutions.
 
One thing is made crystal clear throughout our text: BridgEU will leave the functioning of existing cross-border agreements and arrangements already in force between Member States untouched (e.g. the Benelux, the Nordic Council, the Quirinale Treaty), and will not interfere with the internal constitutional organisation of Member States. Regardless, once BridgEU is activated, the procedures and deadlines it establishes must be complied with, to ensure its effectiveness.
 
The quasi-unanimous support across political groups during the vote in Plenary signals Parliament’s unity in this fight, and our willingness to reopen negotiations with our Member States as soon as possible. In this respect, the commitment undertaken by Commissioner Elisa Ferreira to consider the issuing of a revised legislative proposal is certainly reassuring. This would be the perfect way to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Single Market, and to truly make border regions “living labs of European integration”. This is the “Europe of concrete solutions” that citizens are calling for.

Sandro Gozi
Member of the European Parliament