BRIDGEforEU regulation to be adopted

2025. January 21.

The Hungarian Presidency has achieved a resounding success in adopting another EU legal mechanism to make life easier for border regions, which had been stalled for years. The BRIDGEforEU Regulation will allow Member States to establish one or more institutions in the future whose task will be to help eliminate obstacles that make the everyday lives of people living along the border more difficult. Since the proposal was drafted by the Luxembourg EU Presidency in 2015, our association has been actively involved in the negotiation process of the new instrument, which was finally named BRIDGEforEU, referring to its role in reducing the divisive effects of borders. The experience of the #ACCESS project, currently being implemented by CESCI and CESCI Carpathia, can help to launch coordination points and systematically remove obstacles.

2015

In 2015, the Luxembourg Presidency of the EU initiated the incorporation of a legal solution into the EU legislation.

The proposal of the Luxemburg presidency targets the voluntary introduction of a legal tool (European Cross-Border Convention: ECBC) which would create an (extra-)territorial exception for the resolution of a problem in a given border region.

In this regard the example mentioned the most was the tram line connecting Strasbourg in France with Kehl in Germany, the implementation of which has been hindered by different regulations for a decade. In such a case, the ECBM would have made the rules for French trams applicable to the section on the German side as well, instead of the extended section and the vehicles having to be adapted to the legislation of both countries.

In order to develop the mechanism, the Luxembourg Presidency set up a working group, coordinated by the French MOT, of which CESCI was a member from the beginning.

On 29 May 2018, the European Commission proposed a new legal mechanism (European Cross-Border Mechanism – ECBM) as part of the Cohesion Policy legislative package for the period 2021-2027 to remove administrative and legal obstacles to cross-border cooperation, as the cooperation and development of neighbouring countries and regions and the lives of border regions are often hampered by divergent regulations or administrative practices that add time and costs.

The Commission believes that, with the adoption of the Regulation, removing 20% of the current legal and administrative barriers would increase GDP in border regions by 2% and create one million new jobs.

Negotiations on the proposal in the Council failed to produce results, with some member states seeing the initiative as a breach of the subsidiarity principle and some member states objecting to its mandatory application in those where a similar method already exists. The main objection, however, was that the new regulation would have allowed for the extraterritorial application of neighbouring country legislation, which was seen by the vast majority of member states as an infringement of sovereignty. Therefore, the draft regulation was first excluded from the cohesion policy package and then its negotiation was suspended during the Portuguese Presidency.

2018

The proposal for the ECBM was included in the post-2021 cohesion policy package.

2022

The European Parliament and the Committee of the Regions put the mechanism back on the agenda, now in a new version.

In 2022, the European Parliament and the Committee of the Regions put the mechanism back on the agenda, now in a new version, underlining the need for the EU and its Member States to take joint action to remove obstacles or at least reduce their impact. The effects of the restrictive measures introduced during the pandemic have provided considerable ammunition for the supporters of the instrument. The Commission has sought to give new impetus to the negotiation of the concept, taking into account the views of Member States and EU bodies, and has ensured the legislative prerogatives of Member States, while respecting the principle of subsidiarity. However, the draft in its new form has met with widespread opposition and the possibility of its withdrawal was raised during the Belgian EU Presidency.

The Hungarian Presidency, through its Permanent Representation in Brussels, proposed a solution whereby the framework would create a common EU basis, but would be voluntary. Under the regulation, the national cross-border coordination points set up in the border region would coordinate the responses to existing obstacles (analysis of obstacle notifications, monitoring of implementation, communication with local and regional authorities) in a one-stop-shop system. Once the obstacle has been assessed and the nature of the provision constituting the obstacle has been identified, the cross-border coordination point would be responsible for contacting the competent authority. The decision to resolve administrative or legal obstacles remains voluntary and remains the responsibility of the competent national bodies. On 23 October, the European Council adopted the Hungarian proposal, and on 16 December an interim agreement was reached between the Council, the Parliament and the Commission, in the so-called trilogue process.

The most important added value of the regulation is the coordination points to be set up at national level, which will know the legal systems applied on both sides of the border and the contact details of the competent authorities/departments. It will also be able to play a strong coordinating role between (project) beneficiaries and the authorities in charge of addressing the problem, but it can also contribute effectively to intergovernmental communication on certain territorial and economic development concepts. This role could be played by an existing institution.

The proposal of the Hungarian Presidency has brought member states’ positions closer to each other: the absolute voluntary nature of the establishment of cross-border coordination points and the absolute choice of member states on how to tackle cross-border obstacles has brought results in the negotiations, while preserving the original intention of the draft to create a new institution to facilitate the daily life of EU citizens living along the borders.