Leaders from Europe’s cities and regions met in Luxembourg on Wednesday and called on the EU to step-up its efforts to strengthen cross-border cooperation and improve mobility, especially among less connected regions. Members of the European Committee of the Regions (CoR) called for EU financing – through structural funds, the Connecting Europe facility and the recently launched €315bn Investment Plan – to be directed towards improving relations between regions to boost Europe’s economy.

With 37.5% of the EU population living in border areas, regional disparity on the rise and faced by the growing challenge of migration, the CoR’s President – Markku Markkula – called for cross-border cooperation to be reinforced: “Encouraging synergies between cities and regions can foster innovation, open-up markets, promote local investment and boost economies. Cross-border must evolve as a “territorial opportunity” rather than being seen as a “geopolitical handicap”. It is at the heart of the EU project and EU integration which is why it urgently needs greater investment.”

Speaking on behalf of the Luxembourg Presidency of Council of the EU, Camille Gira – State Secretary for Sustainable Development and Infrastructure – proposed that European instruments supporting cross-border cooperation be developed, “so that specific legal provisions can be applied in border regions with a view to the implementation of projects or strategies which could not be achieved under disparate legal systems.”

Marc Schaefer , Mayor of Vianden and Head of the Luxembourg delegation to the CoR, said “Achieving fully integrated cross-border regions is a long-term objective requiring innovative strategies and instruments and close cooperation between a wide range of actors: the European Union and its institutions, Member States, regional and local authorities, and of course the people who live in these regions”

Michael Cramer MEP , Chairman of the European Parliament’s Committee on Transport and Tourism, highlighted the need to invest in missing short range railway lines and bridges in cross-border regions that had been destroyed during and after the Second World War. “The railway network in the EU is a patchwork with gaps exactly where the borders are although we have been working in favour of a European network for 30 years. The gaps do not exist because of a lack of money. They exist because of a lack of national priority on each side of the borders even though the positive effects would be tremendous. I call on the European Commission to act and prioritise co-financing to rebuild these missing links in cross-border areas all over the EU.”

Improving cross-border mobility, President Markkula added, is vital for the EU: “Europe’s migration crisis should not be a reason to restrict the movement of people across borders nor slow progress in developing transport links. Instead of transforming our freedom of movement – one of the greatest EU achievements – into an object of nationalism and populism, we must make it an asset for our citizens, for European integration and economic development”.

The debate took place ahead of the 25th anniversary of INTERREG – an EU-funded programme that seeks to improve European cross-border and transnational cooperation. Within this context, the CoR members adopted a Declaration which calls for the programme to be simplified, cross-border areas to be considered in all EU policies and investment increased.