EUROPEAN COMMISSION Brussels, 17.8.2018 SWD(2018) 395 final COMMISSION STAFF WORKING DOCUMENT Accompanying the document REPORT FROM THE COMMISSION TO THE EUROPEAN PARLIAMENT, THE COUNCIL AND THE COMMITTEE OF THE REGIONS



on the application of the Regulation (EC) No 1082/2006 on a European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) as amended by Regulation (EC) No 1302/2013 as regards the clarification, simplification and improvement of the establishment of such groupings

{COM(2018) 597 final}



1. Methodology of ASSESSing THE APPLICATION OF THE Amended EGTC REGULATION To gather the necessary data in order to assess the application of the amended EGTC Regulation, the European Commission worked in close cooperation with the Committee of the Regions, while it was preparing the 2017 EGTC Monitoring Report, as well as commissioning a specific study to assess the questions and indicators set out in the Annex to the future delegated act on the EGTC implementation indicators. For answering the assessment questions – besides the indicators, the following additional information from several sources and data were used to draw up this Report. Firstly, this Report is based on the questionnaires sent to EGTCs and approval authorities for the data collection of the EGTC monitoring report 2017. These questionnaires contained annually posed questions and additional questions focussing on relevant assessment indicators. Secondly, additional data on EGTCs, e.g. their current membership structures, have been collected through online sources, including EGTC webpages. This complements data for EGTCs that did not answer the questionnaire. It was furthermore used to check the robustness of the data received from EGTCs by testing samples and checks on data incoherencies provided by EGTCs. Thirdly, a literature review was conducted that focused in particular on a) legal issues raised by legal experts and b) experience gathered from EGTCs that can shed light on the application of the amended EGTC Regulation. Fourthly, additional interviews were carried out with key persons, i.e. EGTCs' experts etc. These interviews addressed specific questions of the assessment for which no or little other information was available. The outcome of the analysis was discussed with relevant experts of the Commission as well as the Committee of the Regions.





2. REFERENCES 1.CoR, (2018). EGTC monitoring report 2017. European Committee of the Regions. 2.CoR, 2017a. EGTC monitoring report 2016 and impacts of Schengen area crisis on the work of EGTCs. European Committee of the Regions. 3.CoR, 2017b. Simplification of the implementation of Cohesion Policy. Workshop on European Territorial Cooperation (ETC). Final Report. Brussels. 4.European Parliament – European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation as an instrument for promotion and improvement of territorial cooperation in Europe – Zillmer, S., Lüer, C., Toptsidou, M., Krzymuski, M., Dallhammer, E., Kintisch, M., Schuh, B., Celotti, P., Colin, A., Preku, A., Brignani, N., Waterhout, B., Zonneveld, W., Stead, D., 2015. European Parliament. Policy Department B: Structural and Cohesion Policies. 5.MORO Praxis. Experience of European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) (No. 08/2017), Zillmer, S., Lüer, C., 2017 MORO Praxis. BMVI, Berlin. 6.Spatial foresight – Assessment of the application of the EGTC regulation . Zillmer, S. Hans, S. 2018. European Commission, Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, 2018. The report will be made available on http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/policy/cooperation/european-territorial/egtc/ 7.Krzymuski, M., Kubicki, P., 2014. EVTZ-2.0 - Neue Chance für die grenzübergreifende Zusammenarbeit öffentlicher Einrichtungen? NVwZ 20/2014, 1338–1344. 8.Krzymuski, M., 2017. Der EVTZ im Innenverhältnis, in: Krzymuski, M., Kubicki, P., Ulrich, P. (Eds.), Der Europäische Verbund Für Territoriale Zusammenarbeit. Nomos, Baden-Baden, pp. 131–158. 9.TIA report 2018. Territorial impact assessment (TIA) report on EGTCs based on the expert workshop organised by the European Committee of the Regions and ESPON EGTC on 13 March 2018 in Brussels. 10.The participation of entities of outside the EU in the European Groupings for Territorial Cooperation, European Committee of Regions, 2015.

3. Comprehensive List of all Indicators Indicator Unit 21 June 2014 31 Dec 2017 Effectiveness 1. Conformity of MS' national rules with the Regulation1 No. of MS with adopted implementation rules the amendment - 23 2. Conformity of MS’ national rules with Regulation The degree of detail laid down in national implementation rules, including their amendments, differs considerably. National implementation rules are subject to national considerations only, no lack of conformity with the EGTC regulation could be identified. This does not exclude possible overregulation. 3. Increase of EGTCs set-up Number of EGTCs 48 68 4. Increase of members in existing EGTCs2 Number of EGTCs - 11 5. Participants' assessment of improvement of the quality of cooperation as a result of the EGTC instrument Improvements in intensity and quality of cooperation including better funding access, more visibility and involvement in decision-making, higher ranking of cross-border issues, multi-level governance approaches and facilitation of cross-border processes 6. Increase of members per category2 Number of types of EGTC members 628 829 MS 22 22 Authorities at national level 3 4 Regional authorities 78 117 Local authorities 509 640 Public undertakings 6 13 Undertakings entrusted with services of general economic interest 0 11 Associations of bodies belonging to one or more of these categories 8 17 National, regional or local authorities, or bodies or undertakings, equivalent to those above from Third countries 0 5 7. Number of EGTCs involved in organisation of cross-border services3 Number of EGTCs according to categories - 10 Health - 1 Education and training - 0 Environment, energy, nature protection - 1 Transport - 5 Research - 1 Other - 2



Efficiency 8. Costs for setting-up an EGTC compared to comparable structures under international or national law Euro per EGTC - n.a. 9. Costs for the functioning of an EGTC compared to comparable structures under international or national law Euro per EGTC - - 10. Approval procedure for EGTCs compared to the approval procedure for comparable bodies under international or national law The few responses received indicate that approval procedures are similar. The possibility for tacit approval was not appreciated by the vast majority of authorities. Relevance & Sustainability 11. Use of EGTC for the implementation of a cooperation programme (as MA) Number of EGTCs 1 2(3)4 12. Use of EGTC to implement part of a cooperation programme (e.g. sub-programme, Small-project-fund; people-to-people projects; ITI, JAP) Number of EGTCs - 205 Small-project-fund - 4 ITI 0 7 JAP 0 6 CLLD 0 4 S3 strategy 0 5 13. Use of EGTC to implement an operation (according to sub-categories of different funding sources)6 Number of EGTCs - 365 Operation under a cooperation programme (CBC, transnational, interregional) 18 33 Operation supported by the EU through the ERDF under an Investment for Growth and Jobs Goal programme - 2 Operation supported by the EU through the ESF 3 1 Operation supported by the EU through the Cohesion Fund 1 0 Operation supported by the EU through the EAFRD 1 3 Operation/project supported by the EU outside Cohesion Policy programmes (CEF, Erasmus(+), Horizon 2020, etc.) 1 10 14. Use of the different options for the choice of applicable law The targeted clarification has not been achieved but the amendment has created new ambiguities as well as possibly unnecessary requirements. 15. Use of own staff compared to delegated staff EGTCs can usually specify the reasons why they prefer one solution or another for their staff. No difficulties have been reported since amendment of the regulation.



16. Motivating factors in choosing to set-up an EGTC, for those bodies who have formally entered into an EGTC agreement No EU wide data is available on individual motivating factors. Studies suggest that they are in line with achieving typical benefits of EGTCs. Benefits related to joint forces can be crucial motivations. 17. Probability that an EGTC is to be continued after its duration has come to an end Only a few EGTCs have a defined dissolution date. One of these will be dissolved since its tasks are not relevant anymore (it has been replaced by a new EGTC). For all other EGTCs no assessment can be made currently. 18. EGTCs registered without performing activities Number of EGTCs The few EGTCs without any or only very few activities tend to suffer from a lack of both human and financial resources. There seems to be a critical threshold of resources necessary to successfully run an EGTC. - 3 EU added-value 19. Number of territorial cooperation structures and networks which would not have been set-up without the EGTC instrument - - 20. Advantages of a legal body set-up under EU law compared to (other) legal bodies existing under international or national law Advantages have several dimensions such as better decision-making, long-term strategy and objective development with cross-border focus, higher independence combined with legal personality, joint forces for obtaining a critical mass and better visibility. Together these contribute to illustrating the European added value of the EGTC instrument Simplification 21. Average time for setting-up an EGTC – phase 1 Months 20 197 / 198 22. Average time for setting-up an EGTC – phase 2 Months 18 177 / 118 23. Number of tacit approvals Number of tacit approvals Approval authorities seem to prefer to use the explicit approval. If no additional documents are requested, this implies that the six months period is reduced. - - ‘-‘ indicates not relevant or not available. 1 Not all approval authorities replied to the information request in 2017. The indicator is based on the responses for 2016 and 2017. 2 Not every EGTC provided sufficient and reliable data for this question at the cut-off date. Data includes all 68 EGTCs as of 31 December 2017 based on additional data collection. Data for 21 June 2014 refers to the 48 EGTCs at that point in time. Data for 2014 is indicative as changes to EGTC member structures are not always transparent. 3 Indicator renamed from "Increase of services provided as a result of EGTCs" due to lack of reliable data in line with the original formulation. 4 Both EGTCs refer to the Interreg programmes of the Greater Region, i.e. the inactive INTERREG "Programme Grande Région" EGTC founded for the 2007-2013 period and the now active EGTC for the Interreg VA programme 2014-2020. 5 An EGTC for which more than one of the sub-categories applies is counted only once. 6 The numbers for the baseline in June 2014 refer to projects of the 20017-13 programming period and are not verified, due to inconsistencies in the 2014 EGTC monitoring report. 7 Based on all 41 EGTCs providing the information, since introduction of the EGTC instrument. 8 Based on 13 approved EGTCs providing the information, approved after 21 December 2014. Source: Spatial Foresight, based on CoR (2018), CoR (2015a), data from EGTCs and national authorities and own data collection. Qualitative information is also based on interviews and literature review.

4. List of EGTCs Note to the reader: For improved legibility, the EGTCs are referred to by their official acronyms as detailed in the EGTC register of the CoR. If there is no official acronym, either the English name (if listed in the register) or the name in the local language of the seat country is used. In all cases, the language abbreviation of ‘EGTC’ is translated into English to avoid confusion. The following list gives an overview of the abbreviations with their number in the CoR register. No Acronym/ Abbreviation Full name (in English or local language of the seat country) 1 Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai Eurométropole Lille-Kotrijk-Tournai 2 Ister-Granum Ister-Granum European Grouping of Territorial Co-operation Ltd 3 GNP Agrupación Europea de Cooperación Territorial Galicia – Norte de Portugal 4 Amphictyony EGTC Amphictyony of Twinned Cities and Areas of the Mediterranean 5 UTTS Ung-Tisza-Túr-Sajó (Hernád-Bódva-Szinva) Limited Liability EGTC 6 Karst-Bodva Limited liability European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation Karst-Bodva 7 Duero-Douro Agrupación Europea de Cooperación Territorial Duero-Douro 8 Flandre-Dunkerque-Côte d'Opale Groupement Européen de Coopération Territoriale West Vlaanderen/Flandre-Dunkerque-Côte d'Opale 9 ArchiMed GECT ArchiMed 10 Pyrénées-Méditerranée GECT Pyrénées-Méditerranée 11 Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau GECT Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau 12 ZASNET Agrupamento Europeu de Cooperação Territorial ZASNET, AECT 13 HC Agrupació Europea de Cooperació Territorial Hospital de Cerdanya 14 Grande Région GECT INTERREG "Programme Grande Région" 15 SaarMoselle Eurodistrict Saarmoselle 16 ABAÚJ - ABAÚJBAN ABAÚJ - ABAÚJBAN European Grouping of Territorial Co-operation Ltd 17 Pons Danubii Pons Danubii EGTC 18 BTC EGTC Bánát - Triplex Confinium Limited Liability EGTC 19 Arrabona Arrabona Korlátolt Felelősségű Európai Területi Együttműködési Közhasznú Csoportosulás 20 Linieland van Waas en Hulst "Linieland van Waas en Hulst" Europese Groepering voor Territoriale Samenwerking 21 Euregio Tirolo - Alto Adige - Trentino GECT Euregio Tirolo - Alto Adige - Trentino 22 GO Territorio dei comuni: Comune di Gorizia (I), Mestna Občina Nova Gorica (Slo) e Občina Šempeter-Vrtojba (Slo) 23 Pirineus - Cerdanya GECT Pirineus – Cerdanya 24 Espacio Portalet Agrupación Europea de Cooperación Territorial "Espacio Portalet" 25 RDV Rába-Duna-Vág European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation with Limited Liability 26 Eurorégion Nouvelle Aquitaine-Euskadi-Navarre GECT Eurorégion Nouvelle Aquitaine-Euskadi-Navarre 27 Poarta Europa GECT Gruparea Europeană de Cooperare Teritorială Poarta Europa cu Răspundere Limitata (Poarta Europa GECT) 28 BODROGKÖZI BODROGKÖZI Korlátolt Felelősségű Európai Területi Együttműködési Közhasznú Csoportosulás 29 Novohrad-Nógrád Novohrad-Nógrád European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation with Limited Liability 30 Pannon Pannon European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation Ltd. 31 Efxini Poli – SolidarCity Network EGTC EFXINI POLI - Network of European Cities for Sustainable Development 32 EUKN European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation European Urban Knowledge Network Limited 33 Euregio Senza Confini GECT "Euregio Senza Confini r.l." 34 TRITIA European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation TRITIA limited 35 Sajó-Rima / Slaná-Rimava Sajó - Rima / Slaná - Rimava European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation with Limited Liability 36 Via Carpatia European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation Via Carpatia Limited 37 Parc européen Alpi Marittime – Mercantour Parc européen / Parco europeo Alpi Marittime - Mercantour 38 P.M.I.B.B. Gruppo Europeo di Cooperazione Territoriale (G.E.C.T) Parco Marino Internazionale delle Bocche di Bonifacio (P.M.I.B.B) 39 Secrétariat du Sommet de la Grande Région GECT "Secrétariat du Sommet de la Grande Région" 40 TATRY EGTC TATRY Ltd. 41 Spoločný región European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation Spoločný región limited 42 Torysa Torysa European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation 43 Svinka Svinka European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation 44 Alzette Belval GECT Alzette Belval 45 AEuCC Agrupación Europea de Cooperación Territorial Ciudades de la Cerámica, AECT limitada 46 Eurocity of Chaves-Verín European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation Eurocity of Chaves-Verín 47 European Common Future Building European Common Future Building European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation with Limited Liability 48 CETC-EGTC Central European Transport Corridor Limited Liability European Grouping of Territorial Co-operation 49 HP-HP Huesca Pirineos – Hautes Pyrénées 50 AECT-FPI Agrupación Europea de Cooperación Territorial Faja Pirítica Ibérica 51 European Border Cities European Border Cities European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation Limited Liability 52 ESPON ESPON EGTC – European Node for Territorial Evidence 53 PAHT GECT Pays d'Art et d'Histoire Transfrontalier Les Vallées Catalanes du Tech et du Ter 54 Interregional Alliance for the Rhine-Alpine Corridor Interregional Alliance for the Rhine-Alpine Corridor EGTC 55 MASH MASH European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation 56 Mura Region Mura Region European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation Limited Liability 57 Tisza Tisza European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation Limited Liability 58 INTERREG Grande Région GECT-Autorité de gestion programme INTERREG V A Grande Région 59 NOVUM European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation NOVUM Limited 60 León-Bragança Agrupación Europea de Cooperación Territorial León-Bragança 61 PONTIBUS PONTIBUS European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation Limited Liability 62 EUCOR The European Campus Eucor The European Campus 63 EMI European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation "European Mycological Institute" 64 PROUD Eisenbahnneubaustrecke Dresden Prag EVTZ 65 Eurodistrict PAMINA Groupement Européen de Coopération Territoriale Eurodistrict PAMINA 66 Ipoly-völgye Ipoly-valley European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation with Limited Liability 67 DIETAMED DIETA MED EGTC 68 HELICAS European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation HELICAS 69 MURABA MURABA European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation Limited



5. EGTCs in ETC Programmes in 2017 ETC programme EGTCs involved Role of EGTCs Unknown* Amphictyony, ZASNET, Arrabona, Eurodistrict PAMINA Project implementation Interreg VA SUDOE EGTC EPM Project implementation Interreg VA Saxony-CZ EGTC PROUD Associated partner Interreg VA POCTEP EGTC León-Bragança, EGTC GNP, EGTC Eurocity of Chaves-Verín Project implementation Interreg VA Grande-Région EGTC SaarMoselle, EGTC Alzette Belval Project implementation, managing partner, Managing Authority Interreg VA POCTEFA EGTC HP-HP, EGTC Espacio Portalet Project implementation Interreg VA IT-AT EGTC Euregio Tirolo - Alto Adige - Trentino, EGTC Euregio Senza Confini Project implementation and observer Interreg VA Upper Rhine EGTC EUCOR The European Campus, Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau Project implementation Interreg VA FR-Wallonie-Vlaanderen EGTC Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai, EGTC Flandre-Dunkerque-Côte d'Opale Project implementation and associated partner Interreg VA Vlaanderen-NL EGTC Linieland van Waas en Hulst Project implementation Interreg VA PL-SK EGTC TATRY, EGTC TRITIA Project implementation Interreg VA HU-SK EGTC RDV Project implementation Interreg VA RO-HU BTC EGTC Project implementation Interreg VA HU-HR EGTC Mura Region Project implementation Interreg VA IT-FR EGTC ArchiMed Project implementation Interreg VA IT-SI EGTC GO Project implementation Interreg VA CZ-PL EGTC NOVUM Project implementation Interreg Alpine Space EGTC Euregio Tirolo - Alto Adige - Trentino Managing partner Interreg Central Europe EGTC NOVUM, EGTC TRITIA, CETC-EGTC Project implementation Interreg Atlantic Space EGTC Eurorégion Nouvelle Aquitaine-Euskadi-Navarre Project implementation Interreg Danube EGTC Pons Danubii Project implementation Interreg Baltic Sea CETC-EGTC Associated partner Interreg MED EGTC Efxini Poli – SolidarCity Network Project implementation Interreg Europe EGTC León-Bragança, EGTC GO, EGTC Pannon, EGTC Pons Danubii, EGTC EPM Project implementation ESPON EGTC GNP, ESPON EGTC Single beneficiary and stakeholder (associated partner) * Some EGTCs did not indicate the Interreg programme where they implement ETC project or have an associated role. Source: Spatial Foresight, based on data from EGTCs



6. Non-project/programme implementation related work of EGTCs in ETC EGTCs involved Role of EGTCs EGTC Flandre-Dunkerque-Côte d'Opale, EGTC PROUD, CETC-EGTC Associated partner EGTC Alzette Belval, EGTC Euregio Tirolo - Alto Adige - Trentino Managing partner, supporting Interreg applications of other actors (Alzette Belval) or supporting the CLLD process through networking (Euregio Tirolo - Alto Adige – Trentino) EGTC Euregio Senza Confini Observer in a Steering Committee EGTC GNP, ESPON EGTC Single beneficiary and stakeholder (associated partner) EGTC Eurodistrict Strasbourg-Ortenau Project promoter TRITIA EGTC Member with a voting right in a Monitoring Committee of an Interreg VA programme Source: Spatial Foresight, based on data from EGTCs 7. EGTCs and other EU funds in 2017 Fund/ Programme EGTCs European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD) EGTC Linieland van Waas en Hulst, EGTC Spoločný región, PAHT EGTC European Social Fund (ESF) ZASNET Horizon 2020 EGTC Efxini Poli - SolidarCity Network CEF Interregional Alliance for the Rhine-Alpine Corridor EGTC Creative Europe AEuCC EGTC, EPM EGTC, Erasmus+ AEuCC EGTC, EPM EGTC, EUCOR The European Campus, León-Bragança EGTC Europe for Citizens BTC EGTC Hercule III Mura Region Direct funding from DG Regio (under the Urban Agenda) EUKN EGTC Source: Spatial Foresight, based on data from EGTCs



8. Overview of EGTCs under constitution according to status No. Name Status 2016 Status 2017 Countries 1 EGTC InterPal - Medio Tejo Awaiting approval Awaiting approval – approved in 2018 Portugal, Spain 2 Rio Minho Awaiting approval Awaiting approval – approved in 2018 Spain, Portugal 3 EGTC Alpine Pearls Awaiting approval Awaiting approval Austria, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Slovenia, France 4 Cittaslow Awaiting approval Awaiting approval* Italy, Netherlands 5 Eurociudad del Guadiana Awaiting approval Awaiting approval Spain, Portugal 6 INNOVATIVE EUROPE - INEU Awaiting approval Awaiting approval* Greece, Bulgaria 7 European Campus of Studies and Research Awaiting approval In preparation Germany, Austria 8 EGTC David In preparation Awaiting approval Slovenia, Austria 9 Alto Adriatico/Severni Jadran/ Sjeverni Jadran In preparation In preparation* Italy, Slovenia, Croatia 10 EGTC Saint Martin Sint Maarteen In preparation In preparation* France, Netherlands 11 Odra+Oder In preparation In preparation Poland, Germany 12 Euro Contrôle Route (ECR) In preparation In preparation* Belgium, Luxembourg, The Netherlands, France, Germany, Ireland, UK, Poland, Austria, Romania, Bulgaria, Hungary, Lithuania, Croatia 13 Geopark Muskauer Faltenbogen In preparation In preparation Poland, Germany 14 Geopark Karawanken-Karavanke In preparation In preparation Slovenia, Austria 15 Sportzentrum Ralingen-Rosport In preparation* In preparation* Germany, Luxembourg 16 EGTC Hercules In preparation In preparation UK, Spain 17 CIRCULAR ECONOMY, TERITORIAL COHESION, AND INSULARITY EUROPEAN GROUPING OF TERRITORIAL COOPERATION In preparation Greece, Croatia, Cyprus, France, Italy, Malta, Spain 18 Pirineos-Pyrénées In preparation France, Spain 19 Cross-border University Campus In preparation Spain, France, Andorra 20 Euregio Bayerischer Wald - Böhmerwald Idea Germany, Austria, Czech Republic 21 Europaregion Moldau Idea Germany, Austria, Czech Republic 22 GEPACO - GEmeindePArtner PArtenaires COmmunaux Idea Belgium, Germany, France, Luxembourg * Assessment not based on response from EGTC but on information such as approval authorities, news etc.