RESOLUTION A3-0188/92

Resolution on cross-border and inter-regional cooperation

The European Parliament,

-having regard to its resolutions of 15 June 1990 on a Community initiative in favour of border areas (INTERREG programme)OJ No. C 175, 16.7.1990, p. 223 , and of 12 March 1987 on transfrontier cooperation at the internal borders of the CommunityOJ No. C 99, 13.4.1987, p. 153,

-having regard to Article 10 of ERDF Regulation (EEC) No. 4254/88OJ No. L 374, 31.12.1988, p. 15,

-having regard to the Commission communication of 27 November 1990 on the living and working conditions of Community citizens resident in frontier regions, with special reference to frontier workers (COM(90)0561),

-having regard to the document 'Europe 2000: Outlook for the development of the Community's territory',

-having regard to the pioneering work of the Council of Europe in encouraging cross-border cooperation and in promoting a series of practical measures to facilitate such cooperation,

-having regard to the large number of cross-border cooperation bodies and the important and valuable work they carry out,

-having regard to the Community programme INTERREG which is designed to promote cross-border cooperation and has a budget of ECU 800 millionOJ No. C 215, 30.8.1990, p. 4 ,

-having regard to the European Charter of frontier and transfrontier regions,

-having regard to Resolution 227 (1991) of the Council of Europe's Standing Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe on the external relations of local and regional authorities,

-having regard to the resolution adopted at the Second Conference of the European Parliament and the Regions of the Community,

-having regard to Rule 121 of its Rules of Procedure,

-having regard to the report of the Committee on Regional Policy, Regional Planning and Relations with Regional and Local Authorities (A3-0188/92),

A.whereas border regions cover some 15% of Community territory and account for some 10% of the Community population,

B.whereas the removal of internal frontiers within the Community is likely to have powerful effects on the economy and planning in regions situated at both internal and external borders,

C.whereas national policies have tended to benefit national centres at the expense of border areas, both in economic terms and in the allocation of infrastructures,

D.whereas border areas therefore experience particular difficulties in regard to physical and economic development arising inter alia from their location on the fringes of supra-regional transport and communications systems which have traditionally been planned on a national basis and orientated towards national urban centres, thus giving rise to inadequate cross-border transport links,

E.whereas regions on both sides of a border may have poor levels of provisions of public services in areas such as health, education and training, because of their distance from national centres and their often lower density of population; whereas cooperation to avoid unnecessary duplication of services would bring immediate benefits to both sets of regions,

F.whereas the differences in taxation and social security systems and discrepancies, particularly between legal, administrative and employment practices, hamper the mobility of labour across national boundaries,

G.conscious of the importance of the political, social, environmental and cultural components of cross-border cooperation in parallel with its economic and administrative elements,

H.aware that the coastal regions and peripherally located islands should also be regarded as border regions,

I.whereas, in contrast to the situation regarding cross-border cooperation, there is no legal instrument for the promotion of inter-regional cooperation,

J. whereas cross-border cooperation should contribute, within a European framework, to an ever closer union among the peoples resident on either side of the border,

CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION

1.Believes that the border regions have played and have still to play an essential part in building the European Community in all its dimensions, in the rapprochement of the Community with the newly emerging democracies in Eastern Europe and between peripheral regions of the Community and third countries;

2.Points out that the best examples of cross-border cooperation have resulted from initiatives taken by local and regional authorities, often with little support from central government, in response to the desire of local people to cooperate closely with their neighbours across the border and thus alleviate the detrimental effects of the borders on their daily lives in such matters as work, transport and regional planning;

3.Believes that these examples of cooperation should also serve as models for developing cooperation at the external frontiers of the Community, in particular with Poland, the Czech and Slovak Federative Republic and the countries of the southern Mediterranean;

4.Points out that the progressive transfer of customs and immigration formalities from the Community's internal frontiers to its external frontiers carries with it the possibility that frontier regions that were peripheral in relation to their Member State (e.g. border regions of the Netherlands and Germany or of Spain and Portugal) can become central to a new network of international economic relations;

5.Believes it essential, as part of the Community initiatives envisaged in the reform of the Structural Funds, to draw up programmes which will help solve labour problems that may arise as a result of the abolition of the Community's internal frontiers, and that particular efforts should be devoted to creating alternative employment opportunities in border areas and districts affected by major job losses in sectors such as customs as a consequence of the completion of the single market;

6.Regrets that border regions often still lack a binding legal basis for cooperation between interested social groups, organizations and authorities across internal frontiers of the Community, and calls once again on the Member States and the Commission to adopt the necessary measures and devise proposals for a framework regulation;

7.Believes that within the European Community, and within its sphere of competence, border regions may conclude agreements, cooperate on any matters they consider to be of common interest and enter into direct relations with their neighbours across the border without requiring any power of delegation or any authorization from their central governments; considers that the recent agreement concluded between the frontier regions of Germany, the former Czechoslovakia and Poland can serve as a point of reference in this connection;

8.Believes that the Commission should actively promote the establishment of cross-border development agencies responsible for promoting economic, cultural and social cooperation and facilitating cooperation in other domains between border regions and should also seek a formula to overcome the legal and constitutional problems that impede development;

9. Calls on Member States which have not yet ratified the European Outline Convention on Transfrontier Cooperation to ratify it as soon as possible and calls on the Commission to look into the possibility of the Community acceding directly to the Convention;

10.Supports the recommendation of the Council of Europe's Standing Conference of Local and Regional Authorities of Europe that an additional protocol be drawn up to strengthen the scope of the European Outline Convention on Transfrontier Cooperation by recognizing in particular the legal authenticity, in national law, of acts done by cross-border cooperation bodies;

11.Welcomes the initiative taken by the Commission and the Association of European Border Regions in setting up the LACE Observatory on cross-border cooperation;

12.Believes that a specific statute to protect frontier nature reserves should be devised so as to ensure consistency at supranational level in management policies for cross-border environmental areas of value to the whole of Europe;

13.Believes that where plans exist to install hazardous industries and polluting activities in border areas it should be compulsory for the populations concerned on either side of the frontier to be consulted and that, in general, the practice followed by states of locating such units around the perimeters of their territory should be discouraged;

14. Calls for national rules governing the protection of the environment to be harmonized rapidly so as to prevent transfers of pollutants from the more advanced countries to the laxer countries;

15. Calls on the Member States, in keeping with the spirit of a Europe without borders, to remove obstacles, particularly legal ones, to the free reception on both sides of the border of television and radio channels legally broadcasting from a border region;

16. Calls on those Member States which have not yet done so to grant legal recognition to their regional languages and accord them official status, thus facilitating and invigorating cultural cooperation in a number of border regions;

17.Reaffirms the principal recommendations made in its resolution on transfrontier cooperation at the internal borders of the European Community referred to above, namely:

-joint transfrontier regional and urban planning at local and district/regional level for environmental protection, disaster, fire and epidemic prevention and control, energy and water supply and sewage and waste disposal;

-transfrontier cooperation on the planning and utilization of health service facilities;

-transfrontier planning of local passenger and goods transport with the ancillary aim of removing bottle-necks at border crossings;

-transfrontier cooperation on the dissemination of skills in education and cultural policy, sport and tourism;

-transfrontier cooperation between employment exchanges on the organization of the labour market and particularly on job vacancy notices;

and, in its above-mentioned resolution on the INTERREG Programme, especially with regard to:-

-the inclusion of cross-border measures in Community Support Frameworks;

-the employment effects of the removal of border controls on border regions;

-the launching of a separate programme concentrating on Eastern Europe;

-a more general and binding Community legal framework for cross-border cooperation;

INTER-REGIONAL COOPERATION

18. Considers it essential to strengthen the regional planning and inter-regional dimensions of the present regional policy in such a way as to take account of the various inter-regional initiatives and dynamics as well as the principle of subsidiarity and to develop the inter-regional approach enabling the objectives of sustainable development to be achieved and a coherent multi-regional strategy to be defined;

19.Notes the need to draw up a specific programme on cross-border cooperation in the Mediterranean;

20.Considers that the inter-regional approach, which respects local institutions but enhances their awareness of the community of interests between regions, is the right approach for both the development and the environment of the regions of Europe;

21.Considers that Community action to promote these European areas involves:

(a)equipping them with basic infrastructure,

(b)strengthening inter-regional cooperation by developing and encouraging joint projects,

(c)convergence at inter-regional level of certain policies affecting issues relating to rural (zone 5b) and urban problems, education, research, the new technologies, inter-business cooperation (SMUs and SMIs) and the environment;

22.Notes the interest shown by the Community in the emergence of regional and transnational areas and in the initiatives already taken in this area: the Integrated Mediterranean Programmes, Exchange of Experience programmes, RECITE under Article 10 of the new ERDF regulation, OUVERTURE and ECOS, and the 'Europe 2000' study based on the emergence of large European areas and calls for RECITE, in particular, to be strengthened in the future;

23.Stresses the importance of Community programmes aimed at encouraging inter-regional cooperation on training and the need to promote the mobility of young people and language learning;

24.Emphasizes the various principles on which inter-regional cooperation in the Community should be based:

(a)regions and towns to be encouraged to define their inter-regional cooperation requirements themselves,

(b)inter-regional cooperation to be encouraged by supporting and developing joint projects capable of rallying general support,

(c)overall strategic thinking to be organized in cooperation with the future Committee of Regions and Local and Regional Authorities;

CROSS-BORDER AND INTER-REGIONAL COOPERATION AFTER MAASTRICHT

25.Welcomes the proposal in the document COM(92)2000 to increase significantly the appropriations for the Structural Funds, while regretting that their funding still falls far below real requirements, and to enhance the role of Community initiatives such as INTERREG;

26.Notes with satisfaction that in its communication "Community Structural Policies: Assessment and Outlook" and in the document COM(92)2000, INTERREG is cited as a highly successful Community initiative; urges the Commission to plan beyond 1993, when INTERREG expires, with a view to introducing an extension of INTERREG that builds upon the results achieved in the first phase, and separate, but complementary, programmes specifically designed to promote cross-border cooperation with Eastern European and Mediterranean countries;

27. Considers that, as from 1993, in the interests of greater efficiency, the Commission should be able to manage the INTERREG programme through direct relations with the regional and local authorities as is already the case with, for example, the RECITE programme;

28.Urges that the revision of the structural fund regulations should take account of the new immigration problems facing some European regions and make provision for the development of cross-border and inter-regional Community Support Frameworks;

29. Considers that the establishment of the Committee of the Regions and the inclusion of the subsidiarity principle in the Treaty constitute two elements which increase the need to extend those fields in which provision is made for direct relations between the Commission and regional and local authorities, particularly within the framework of cross-border and inter-regional cooperation;

30.Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the Commission, the Council and the Council of Europe.