Principal/Financier: Council of Europe
Period: 2012-2013

Background: In 2010-2011, in response to an invitation from the European Ministers of Local and Regional Government expressed at the 16th session of their Conference (Utrecht, November 16-17, 2009), the CDLR carried out work to identify obstacles to cross-border cooperation implemented by local authorities and communities, measures or solutions adopted to overcome them, and “good practices” in this area.This research work has made it possible to produce extensive documentation (available here). The purpose of this work is the drafting of a Handbook that can be used by the actors of cross-border cooperation

Overall Goal: To develop a Handbook of practical solutions to overcome obstacles to cross-border cooperation. The Handbook should include examples of, or suggestions for, practices implemented in member states and suitable for application by other states or local or regional authorities, with the aim of overcoming or eliminating obstacles encountered in cooperation with other states and/or local and regional authorities straddling a common border

Specific objectives:

• The Handbook should reporate practical solutions that already exist or can be deduced from concrete cases noted in Europe
• The useful approach to identifying solutions should start from the problems. Thus, the first need is to identify the areas in which cross-border cooperation takes place (social policies, education, culture, health, transportation, infrastructure, environment, etc.).
• For each area, typical problems should be identified