From 13–15 October, Brussels hosted the European Week of Regions and Cities, Europe’s biggest gathering of regional policymakers, experts, and practitioners. Interreg CENTRAL EUROPE joined the event with a session titled “Interreg Solutions for Local Challenges: How Cooperation Supports Peripheral and Border Regions in Central Europe.”
The session showcased how transnational cooperation helps regions facing remoteness, limited connectivity, or low institutional capacity. By working together across borders, regions can pool resources, share knowledge, and tackle challenges more effectively than any single region could alone. Participants learned how cooperation can be tailored to the unique needs of peripheral and border regions, how EU cohesion policy drives resilience and innovation beyond infrastructure, and how transnational projects build networks and foster structural change.
For central Europe, where many regions face demographic decline and limited investment, these discussions provide tools, ideas, and partnerships that strengthen local communities and economies. For them, the cooperation is not just a policy, it is a pathway to a stronger, more connected future.
We also joined the Interreg stand at the exhibition, visually illustrating how transnational cooperation “weaves together people, regions, and ideas” into tangible result. In addition, we took part in a discussion on the new BRIDGEforEU Regulation together with Institute for Transnational and Regional Cross-border Cooperation and Mobility and The Association of European Border Regions exploring how Cross-Border Coordination Points can help remove barriers and strengthen cooperation across Europe’s borders.and supported one of the debates on the future of cooperation, where we contributed with our expertise.