Changes from report parliamentary committee draft to plenary report

Added52. Stresses the importance of cross-border cooperation on digitalisation and underlines the need for common projects on digital infrastructure, particularly in public services, in order to provide a coherent and efficient public sector focused on the needs of all;

Added53. Stresses that the EU and the Member States should cooperate more closely with neighbouring countries in the field of healthcare and emergency services and should enhance the capacity of SMEs and mid-caps to operate across borders;

Added54. Stresses the importance of networking and benchmarking in eliminating obstacles to cross-border cooperation and notes that this should enable the better use of tools, such as EGTCs, the Integrated Territorial Investment tool and the Community-Led Local Development strategy;

Added55. Stresses the crucial role that investments in high-quality public services have on building social resilience and coping with economic, health and social crises;

Added56. Welcomes the UK Government’s continued commitment to the PEACE programme, which plays a key role for cooperation between the border regions of Ireland and Northern Ireland;

Added57. Underlines the vital role of the PEACE PLUS programme in maintaining good neighbourly relations in the regions and ensuring their socio-economic development;

Policy recommendations

Change 20

Changed32.58. Recommends greater complementarity between projects and stresses the need for synergysynergies with other policiesEU whichfunding overlaptools geographicallythat have the same geographical and thematically,thematic coverage in order to avoid any double funding; emphasises the need, during the programming period 2021- 2027, for the targeted programmes to clearly identify the requirements and priorities that are common to the regions along the EU’s external borders and to complement other EU-funded initiatives, not overlap with them;

Change 21

Removed33. Recommends promoting European Union financial instruments with added social value, in order to raise the level of awareness of the benefits of Europe;

Added59. Considers that the role of EU macro-regional strategies in addressing challenges related to border regions should be further enhanced;

Removed34. Calls on the Commission to simplify procedures considerably and stresses that these should be flexible enough to meet the real needs of cross-border areas;

Added60. Recommends, in the area of cross-border governance, developing a fully integrated infrastructure strategy (road, rail, water), taking into account the cross-border region as a whole; stresses the importance of developing more sustainable mobility solutions throughout cross-border areas, including through the TEN-T policy; calls on the Commission and the Member States to promote smart mobility;

Removed35. Stresses that the regional and local authorities should be involved in the implementation of projects; calls also for guidelines to be drawn up in this regard;

Added61. Recommends promoting EU financial instruments with added social and economic value in order to raise the level of awareness about the benefits of the EU;

Removed36. Calls on the Commission to improve the capacity of partner state authorities to access European funding;

Added62. Calls on the Commission to reduce the bureaucratic burden, considerably simplify procedures and reduce hurdles related to different legislation; insists that this should make it possible to meet the real needs of cross-border areas; stresses that sustainable and inclusive development requires action at all levels; explicitly recognises the importance of paying attention to rural areas in cross-border regions, as they are particularly affected by demographic challenges;

Added63. Calls for better coordination, dialogue and a further exchange of best practices between regions and states, for instance through a platform like INTERREG Europe; urges the Commission and the Member States to enhance cooperation in this regard and calls for the Member States to provide local and regional authorities with the tools and resources they need to foster ambitious cross-border cooperation; states that public educational and cultural services should be open, accessible and affordable to citizens from both sides of the borders;

Added64. Stresses that, in accordance with the partnership principle, regional and local authorities and representatives of civil society and the private sector should be involved, to the greatest extent possible, in the preparation and implementation of projects from the outset; calls on the Commission to consider providing technical support to local and regional authorities in neighbouring countries to help them develop and implement territorial cooperation projects; further calls for guidelines to be drawn up in this regard;

Added65. Calls on the Commission to continue integrating the Sustainable Development Goals into the future action plans for cross-border cooperation so that no place and no one is left behind;

Added66. Calls on the Commission to further cooperate with partner states to promote cross-border cooperation, supplying, where necessary, know-how in order to help counterpart authorities in partner countries and improve the information provided to them with respect to the procedures and conditions for accessing EU funding;

Added67. Calls for the overall budget for cross-border territorial cooperation to be increased;

Added68. Considers that the creation of joint cross-border local government councils, such as the one established between Romania and Moldova to help develop joint projects of mutual interest, could be an example to be followed;

Added69. Encourages efforts to bring partner countries closer to the EU, stimulate internal reform and capacity-building at local and regional level and promote local democracy, multilevel governance and decentralised cooperation, including through cooperation within EuroNest and the Conference of Regional and Local Authorities for the Eastern Partnership (CORLEAP) for the Eastern Neighbourhood and the Euro-Mediterranean Regional and Local Assembly (ARLEM) and the Parliamentary Assembly of the Union for the Mediterranean (PA-UfM) for the Southern Neighbourhood;

Added70. Stresses the need to step up efforts and allocate more resources with respect to cross-border projects aimed at developing IT infrastructure and expanding access to broadband networks so as to support economic and social cooperation between cross-border regions; highlights the key role that technology and the innovations brought by artificial intelligence can play in strengthening links, promoting sustainable development and improving and simplifying administrative procedures;

Added71. Emphasises the importance of identifying and avoiding project overlaps and unnecessary expenditures between different European programmes and initiatives;

Added72. Recommends conducting periodic evaluations of cross-border cooperation projects to ensure the efficient use of EU financial resources;

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Change 22

Changed37.73. Instructs its President to forward this resolution to the European Council, the Council, the Commission, the European Economic and Social Committee, the Committee of the Regions and the national and regional parliaments of the Member States.