NEW B-SOLUTIONS CALL IS OPEN NOW
The Association of European Border Regions (AEBR) opened the second call for project proposals under the initiative b-solutions. Applications can be submitted until 15 March 2019.
The new call for proposals aims at supporting public bodies and transnational structures to inform about difficulties they face when cooperating with the neighbouring countries in fields such as employment, health, transport, multi-lingualism and information services etc.
OBJECTIVE OF THE INITIATIVE
The main objective of b-solutions is to identify and promote sustainable methods of resolving obstacles of a legal and/or administrative nature which hinder cooperation along EU internal land borders and the new call for proposals is in place to investigate further challenges. Within the present call successful applicants will be attributed the support of legal experts with knowledge of cross-border instances, who will help the participants to find ways to proceed in the collaborative project. 35 participants are awarded the support of experts who will help them assess the problem and envisage possible ways to overcome the difficulties.
After the implementation phase of the pilot actions, on the basis of the reports submitted by the participants, AEBR will produce a consolidated report (compendium) which will illustrate main findings and proposals to foster cooperation where obstacles where found. Lessons learnt and policy recommendations are expected to be major outputs. Not selected proposals will also be analysed so to have a broad and rich overview.
A crucial aspect of the b-solutions initiative is the capitalisation of the information collected which is relevant not just to EU and regional policy-makers but also to all cross-border actors around the EU. Hence, the dissemination and communication aspects of the initiative are fundamental for the long-term success of the action. The exploitation of results will concentrate on the replicability of tested solutions to solve cross-border obstacles in other EU border regions.
THEMATIC COVERAGE OF THE CALL
The call for proposals supports projects in the following thematic areas:
- employment
- health
- transport
- multi-lingualism
- institutional cooperation
- information services
- eGovernment
- evidence and data
ELIGIBLE PARTNERS
Eligible organisations are public bodies (national, regional, local) with a national boundary limiting their territory and cross-border entities such as European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation (EGTCs), Euroregions, Eurodistricts, Eurocities and similar cross border structures with legal personality, even if they are not public bodies.
All applicants shall be located in an EU Member State (or neighbouring EFTA country) and their territories share at least one EU internal land border with another EU Member State/EFTA country.
ABOUT B-SOLUTIONS
b-solutions is a 2-year initiative to tackle legal and administrative border obstacles/difficulties along EU internal borders. It is promoted by the European Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) as one of the actions proposed in the referred Communication Boosting growth and cohesion in EU border regions, adopted by the Commission on 20 September 2017. The initiative is managed by the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR).
