Best practices of foreign EGTCs

Hospital de Cerdanya/ Hôpital de Cerdagne (HC EGTC)

The HC EGTC has major achievements in cross-border health, emergency and public services along the Spanish-French border. The 8 members of the grouping are the Government of Catalonia, the Department of Health of Catalonia, the Health Service of Catalonia, the Spanish Ministry of Health and Consumer Affairs, the French Ministry of Labour and Employment, the Languedoc-Roussillon Regional Hospitalisation Agency and the Languedoc-Roussillon region.

The EGTC established the first binational hospital in Europe. It is on the Spanish-French border, in the city of Puigcerdá.  The Cerdanya/Capcir region is a popular tourist destination in peak seasons (in summer and the ski season) in the Pyrenees, and the obsolete, poorly equipped hospitals in the region were not available to French nationals, only in exceptional cases like emergencies and high risk deliveries. French residents had to travel over 100 km to the nearest French hospital to receive full health care.

The new cross-border hospital of the HC EGTC has been providing proper health care to residents and tourists of both Member States with equal access since 2014. Patients need a valid ID (or residence card) and a valid European Health Insurance Card (and previous medical records, if available) to access the services. Costs are borne by the local health insurance funds where the patient is located according to their European Health Insurance Card.

Chaves-Verín Eurocity

The Chaves-Verín Eurocity partnership is a cooperation between a Spanish (Verín) and a Portuguese (Chaves) municipality to align institutional, economic, social, cultural and environmental policies. There are 3 focus areas in their action plan. The first is to develop the Euro-citizenship under a Common Cultural Agenda through Portuguese courses, exchange student programmes, entertainment activities and the Eurocitizen Card, which will allow residents of neighbouring areas to receive discounts for public services, including tickets to public baths, access to spring water, sports facilities in schools, the use of computer areas, trainings etc.

The second is sustainable development: the establishment of a common public transport system between the two cities, and making the protection of the rural landscape and the construction of a motorway between the two countries a priority for both countries.

The third is economic dynamism: the creation of a common commercial area and an Economic and Business Forum.

As a result of the Eurocity programme, both cities have attracted state and private investments, which contribute to the effective use of common and existing resources.

The European Campus (Ecuor) EGTC

The Ecuor German-French-Swiss EGTC is the first territorial grouping where all members are universities. These are the universities of Basel, Freiburg, Haute-Alsace, Strasbourg and Karlsruhe, which have common research projects focusing on quantum physics, quantum technology, precision medicine, sustainable science and culture studies. Under this cooperation, binational and trinational bachelor and master programmes can be launched where the previously acquired skills of students and staff are mutually acknowledged, allowing for greater mobility between these universities. These skills are put into use in research projects and can be further improved in cross-border exchange programmes like Erasmus+ and other bilateral and multilateral exchange programmes. There is great emphasis on the elimination of differences that hinder mobility, they wish to make travelling between the universities easier (potentially with discounts) and there are efforts to develop a uniform academic calendar. The project is based on three work-packages in chronological order.

1.     Data collection on the students’, researchers’ and staff’s experiences with the university.

2.     Listing the skills that students can acquire in the mobility programmes.

3.     Creating a platform that can contribute to the positive outcome of further developments and discussions with third party universities.

The aim of the project is to create a European university.

Eurometropolis Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai

This was the first EGTC, established in January 2008, and now it has 147 Belgian and French members. The range of activities keeps extending, currently the focus is on six issues that pose a challenge in the border area:

The first is the development of the Eurometropolis identity, to strengthen the feeling of belonging to the same area. For this, the most modern communication devices must be used so that locals can identify with and understand Eurometropolis and its activities. The second challenging issue is the improvement of the accessibility of the area and the mobility of citizens, employees and goods. The third challenge is the development of quality services. This means ensuring proper access to health care, education and sustainable energy, and the development of close relations between enterprises and research centres. The fourth challenge is the coordinated management of territorial development, through which the fifth challenge can be addressed, namely the support of local activities and job creation. Finally, the sixth challenge is the effective management of the Eurometropolis as a Euroregion acknowledged on local, national and EU level.

The current TALATA project’s aim is to encourage students to learn the Dutch language in elementary and secondary schools and to promote the Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai region. The project also supports the mobility of teachers, trainees and students, and promotes professional relations through the establishment of twin institutions.

In their action plan short term transport developments and concepts are defined, for example the increase of the number of cross-border passengers and the alignment of ticketing systems. Currently there are two cross-border community transport services, a railway line connecting Lille, Kortrijk and Tournai and a bus route connecting Mouscron (Belgium), Wattrelos (France) and Roubaix (France). The mutual acceptance of French and Belgian bus tickets is in progress, and students, elderly citizens and the unemployed will also have travel discounts. A significant decrease in the costs of travelling between these cities increases the mobility of people living in the border area and the number of border crossings. 

Duero-Douro EGTC 

This is the collaboration of 200+ Spanish and Portuguese municipalities, its main activity is the management of power supply in 162 small settlements. It works towards an energy-efficient and ecologically sustainable street lighting system, which will also save a lot of public funds. The project can help save 86% of the costs of electricity supply, allowing the municipalities to use these amounts in other priority areas. The energy efficient street lighting project is supervised by the Research, Innovation and Development Sector Council. Duero-Douro is developing a similar strategy for water supply and also works to reduce the number of forest fires.

Nouvelle Aquitaine-Euskadi-Navarre EGTC - EMPLEO AE project

The Spanish-French-Basque EGTC did research and conducted analysis about cross-border commuting and the multidisciplinary management of cross-border employment. Differences in taxation, social security systems, pension rights and other similar areas were analysed. Exploring both the weaknesses and the unexploited potential of the regions revealed that the Euroregion could establish an integrated economic zone in certain areas and that the merging of the labour market in the regions may improve the prospects of local residents. The study includes a number of recommendations as to the improvement of cross-border mobility. This involves teaching the “neighbour’s” language, taxation support for cross-border employees and better access to statistical information and trainings.  The aim is to create and develop an information website (www.empleo-info.eu) where unemployed citizens can find information about the latest vacancies in the border area. Several trainings are planned to connect public institutions in the region and to promote cross-border trainings.

EGTC GO 

The Italian and Slovenian parties to the EGTC established 6 committees focusing on 6 topics, health care, urban planning, culture, sports and the youth, energy and transport, working in close cooperation. These areas are considered to be of strategic significance for the EGTC’s activities, as they provide an opportunity for enhancing economic and social cohesion in the border areas.

Experts from universities, municipalities, local sports and cultural associations and hospitals perform the tasks, according to the unique needs of the specific fields. Before the project started, the development plans of the 3 municipalities were never aligned, but this changed with the common tourism-related marketing programme of the cross-border Isonzo Soča nature park, now being implemented (Eurovelo connections, parking lots for caravans).

In October 2019, along the Slovenian-Italian border bilingual therapeutic courses are to be launched for expecting mothers and new mothers, with the cooperation of 3 towns, Gorizia, Nova Gorica and Šempeter-Vrtojba.