EU support to cross-border cooperation with neighbouring countries

Summary:

Cross-border cooperation programmes are a key element of European neighbourhood policy. Until recently, they also remained one of the few areas of cooperation with Russia. We found that the programmes targeted relevant needs and provided valuable support to regions on both sides of the EU’s external border. However, their implementation started very late and their complementarity with other EU-funded programmes was insufficient, as was the involvement of EU Delegations in neighbouring countries. We make recommendations aimed at addressing these coordination and complementarity problems and enhancing the monitoring of the programmes’ results. This will be essential as cross-border cooperation faces a challenging future: Russia’s invasion of Ukraine has cast severe doubt on half of the programmes proposed for the 2021-2027 period.