On the occasion of the European Cooperation Day and a week after the celebration of the 25th anniversary of Interreg, the Commissioner for Regional and Urban Policy Ms Corina Cretu launched a public consultation on overcoming obstacles in borderregions [1] in Vienna, Austria last week.

Numerous legal and administrative borders still exist and add a burden on cross border activities. As a result, a significant economic potential remains untapped in our border regions. With this public consultation, the Commission will be able to take stock of the opinion of 185 million EU citizens living in border regions in regards to the obstacles they are facing in their everyday life and their suggestions on how to overcome them.

The consultation covers internal EU border regions, and border regions with Switzerland and Norway. It will run from 21 September to 21 December 2015. The results will be made publicly available online in the beginning of 2016, and will also feed into a study which aims to produce conclusions and practical suggestions on how the EU and its partners can ease remaining obstacles.

Please find the link to the consultation here:

http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/en/newsroom/consultations/overcoming-obstacles-border-regions/ [2]