CALL FOR EVIDENCE

FOR AN INITIATIVE (without an impact assessment)

This document aims to inform the public and stakeholders about the Commission's work, so they can provide feedback and participate effectively in consultation activities.

We ask these groups to provide views on the Commission's understanding of the problem and possible solutions, and to give us any relevant information they may have.

Title of the initiative

Facilitating border solutions (amended proposal)

Lead DG – responsible unit

REGIO D2

Likely Type of initiative

Amended proposal for a regulation

Indicative Timing

Q4-2023

Additional Information

-

This document is for information purposes only. It does not prejudge the final decision of the Commission on whether this initiative will be pursued or on its final content. All elements of the initiative described by this document, including its timing, are subject to change.

A. Political context, problem definition and subsidiarity check

Political context

·Interreg programmes work across national borders. While they financially support new projects, they are often hampered by administrative and legal obstacles due to different legal and administrative regimes operating on each side of a border. As a result, some projects cannot be carried out, and there is a negative effect on the well-being of the population living in border areas and on the functioning of the single market. An EU legal instrument is therefore needed to remove these obstacles. 

·On 14 September 2023 the European Parliament adopted a Resolution (2022/2194(INL) calling on the Commission to adopt a proposal for a regulation introducing an instrument to resolve legal and administrative obstacles at border regions.

·The current initiative would amend the 2018 proposal, taking into account the concerns raised by the Council, while following up on the legislative initiative of the European Parliament.

Problem the initiative aims to tackle

·Despite the single market, in border regions (accounting for around one third of the EU population and GDP) the daily activities of individuals and organisations are hampered by legal and administrative obstacles. Actions and activities that are often crucial for well-being and quality of life are more difficult, or even impossible, in border regions compared to non-border regions. Activities that are impacted include taking a job with an employer close to home but across the border, buying or selling goods, and accessing education or other public services.

·Border-related obstacles typically occur when rules and/or administrative procedures on one side of a border are not compatible with those of a neighbouring territory on the other side of a border. These are not cases of infringement, but merely a lack of compatibility between different legal frameworks. For example, if in one country ambulances are supposed to have yellow sirens and in another they are supposed to have blue ones, then it may be illegal for an ambulance to carry a victim of a car accident to the closest hospital when it happens to be in the other country.

·These obstacles also have an economic impact due to a loss of GDP and employment potential in border regions. Solving 20% of the current obstacles could lead to a 2% increase in GDP in these regions.

·Another problem is discrimination, as individuals in border regions have less access to public services, face challenges in interacting with their neighbours or have to incur higher costs in going about their daily lives (e.g. having to comply with two sets of technical standards, one for each side of the border).

·These obstacles are frequently encountered at local or regional level, but the legal competence to resolve them lies at national level. As a result, citizens, organisations and administrations are left with no clear way to address these obstacles.

·A new regulation that creates legal clarity by putting in place a standard procedure for resolving obstacles will ensure that EU citizens living in border areas receive a (positive or negative) response from their Member State. At the same time, Member States should always have the prerogative of deciding whether or not to address an obstacle and how to address it. Member States should also be free to rely on structures they already have in place to solve border-related obstacles.

Basis for EU action (legal basis and subsidiarity check)

·There is a need to ensure that EU border regions and the people who live there are able to identify obstacles, propose solutions, and to receive an appropriate response from the competent authorities on key border-related obstacles and - if deemed appropriate - solutions, on a case-by-case basis. While a few Member States may have effective procedures in place, others do not. The procedure to be set out in the amended proposal would ensure that all border regions have an operational mechanism to trigger solutions for existing obstacles, should they wish to do so.

·Member States would have the prerogative to decide, on a case-by-case basis, if and how to address a specific obstacle.

Legal basis

Article 175, alinea 3 of the Treaty on the Function of the European Union (TFEU).

Furthermore, the initiative would respond to the own initiative resolution of the European Parliament, based on Article 225 TFEU.

Practical need for EU action

The amended proposal for a regulation would allow Member States to use other tools. Concerns about sovereignty of parliaments have been addressed by deleting the ‘European cross-border commitment’ included in the 2018 proposal. Any derogation from national law will be integrated into that country’s law. In other words, there will be no transfer of foreign law. Member States will have more options to set up cross-border cooperation points, including joint cooperation points with their neighbour(s). The proposal continues to aim to address specific cases or projects, not to resolve an obstacle affecting an entire border.

B. What does the initiative aim to achieve and how?

·Adopting the regulation would create a procedure that would provide stakeholders in border regions with legal clarity on how to trigger a process to find the solution for a specific border-related obstacle.

·It would provide for the creation of cross-border coordination points in all Member States. This would ensure clarity on the attribution of competences in each country to address specific border-related obstacles, while enabling coordination between administrations in different Member States.

·Adopting a regulation would be proportionate as the procedure it would create would not involve an increase in public expenditure. Member States would have the flexibility to set up the cross-border coordination points in the most suitable way (e.g. attributing the tasks to already existing structures or creating new structures) according to their own assessment of the needs on their borders.

Likely impacts

The initiative would enable solutions to be found for obstacles that hamper different types of interactions in border regions. The immediate impact would be that local and regional markets (including the labour market) would develop more fluidly in cross-border regions.

It is estimated that resolving only 20% of border obstacles would result in a GDP increase of 2% in border regions, corresponding to 1 million jobs.

Furthermore, the European Added Value Assessment carried out by the European Parliament in 2023 to prepare for its initiative, concluded that removing 20% of border-related obstacles would lead to an increase in gross value added (GVA) of EUR 123 billion per year.

In parallel, the b-solutions initiative (under which the Commission supports pilot solutions to border obstacles on a case-by-case basis) demonstrates that for 38% of the cases assessed, an EU legal instrument would be useful for solving those border obstacles (b-solutions compendium, page 156).

The impacts would be felt mainly in cross-border regions, where one third of the EU population reside. The communication on Boosting Border Regions, demonstrated that the impacts would be greater in regions with more intense cross-border interactions.

Beyond the economic impacts, the initiative would provide a clear contribution to ensuring that no one is left behind. Several studies conducted by the Border Focal Point, demonstrate that in border regions individuals have less access to public services, like healthcare or education, and face higher costs from being exposed to parallel legal frameworks. The initiative would therefore contribute to reducing that type of discrimination.

Future monitoring

The amended proposal for a regulation would introduce principles for future monitoring. The Commission would have a role to liaise with the coordination points in Member States and, in particular, to keep a register of all obstacles addressed by the different Member States under this mechanism.

C. Better regulation

Impact assessment

An impact assessment is not necessary as the initiative concerns an amendment to a proposal for a regulation, and the existing impact assessment remains valid. All relevant evidence is already available and will be included in the explanatory memorandum. 

Moreover, the amended proposal for a regulation follows the adoption of the own initiative resolution of the European Parliament. To prepare for that resolution, the European Parliamentary Research Service has already conducted an European added value assessment for a mechanism to resolve legal and administrative obstacles in a cross-border context.

Consultation strategy

This call for evidence will be published on the Commission's central public consultations webpage, Have your say, for stakeholder feedback for 4 weeks. Stakeholders can already respond to this call for evidence. No open public consultation will be carried out due to the various stakeholder consultation activities that have already been organised by the Commission and other bodies as outlined above.

Why we are consulting?

The call for evidence aims to gather information from relevant stakeholders on the need for a European legal tool to resolve cross-border obstacles. It is also an opportunity for stakeholders to provide information on the obstacles they face, their impacts and the existence (or not) of alternative tools to find solutions.

Target audience

The target audience would mainly be stakeholders in border regions. That includes regional and local administrations, Interreg authorities and projects, civil society and NGOs. Cross-border legal structures, like European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation would be another specific target group.