Interreg turns 30

As a main pillar of the EU's Cohesion policy, the programme stands at the heart of Europe's spirit of supporting regions and countries

This year, the Interreg community celebrates 30 years of cooperation. As the main pillar of the EU's Cohesion Policy, Interreg has stood for three decades at the heart of Europe's spirit of encouraging regions and countries to tackle challenges which they can solve only by working together.

Numerous successful stories of cooperation  

The European Territorial Cooperation (ETC), known as Interreg was launched in 1990. It is a programme that provides a framework for the implementation of common actions and policy exchanges between national, regional and local stakeholders from different Member States.

Interreg is based on three strands of cooperation: cross-border (Interreg A), transnational (Interreg B) and interregional (Interreg C). The programme is all about cooperation between communities, regions and countries in the EU & its immediate neighbours with:

• 60 cross-border programmes improving citizens’ lives by giving them more and better opportunities and access to services across internal borders of the EU;
• 4 interregional cooperation programmes that fostercapacity building and cooperation between urban areas and regions, across the European continent;
• 15 transnational cooperation programmes to tackle common challenges & share good practices among countries in the same geographical area, In Europe & beyond
• 10 cooperation programmes with accession countries (Interreg Instrument for Pre-Accession Assistance (IPA) Cross-Border Programmes),
• 15 cooperation programmes between EU and neighbouring countries sharing a land border or sea crossing, (Interreg European Neighbourhood Instrument Cross-Border (ENI CBC) Programmes).

For the 2014-2020 period, the Interreg cooperation programs covered the whole of Europe, with a total budget of more than 12 billion euros, funded by the EU and its Member States.

The campaign to mark the 30th anniversary of Interreg continues until the end of 2020, with different activities focusing on the topics of good neighbourliness, ecology and youth.