On 21 September Commissioner Ms. Corina Creţu launched a public consultation on overcoming obstacles in border regions.

Even though EU cross-border cooperation has developed substantially in the past decades, numerous obstacles still exist and add a burden on cross-border activities. As a result, a significant economic potential remains untapped. With this public consultation, the Commission intends to take stock of the opinions of EU citizens, organisations and authorities about the legal and administrative obstacles in border regions, as well as their suggestions on how to overcome them.

The consultation covers internal EU borders, as well as borders with Switzerland and Norway. It will run until 21 December 2015.

The results will be made publicly available online in the beginning of 2016. They will also feed into a study which aims to produce conclusions and practical suggestions on how the EU and its partners can ease remaining border obstacles.

The link to the consultation is here: http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/newsroom/consultations/overcoming-obstacles-border-regions/ From this page it is possible to access the questionnaire, which is available in the 24 official languages of the EU.

The public consultation team encourages to share this widely, possibly using websites or the social media.

More info:

• DG REGIO – European cross-border cooperation – The public consultation team,
  REGIO-CONSULTATION-BORDER-OBSTACLES@ec.europa.eu