At the meeting of the European Parliament's REGI Committee that took place on 25 January 2018, ECR Group Member Pavel Branda (Deputy Mayor of Rádlo municipality, Czech Republic), the CoR rapporteur for the opinion on "People-to-people projects and small scale projects in cross-border cooperation programmes", presented his work on the recommendations of the CoR for more efficient cross-border cooperation.

"People-to-people projects and small scale projects play an essential role in cross-border cooperation programmes and have contributed greatly to their success. They form a basis upon which further cross-border cooperation in different areas can be developed. They contribute to making contacts across borders and normalise relationships between neighbouring regions, building trust among partners and overcoming prejudices." explained Dr Pavel Branda.

He further underlined that these projects deal with topics of everyday relevance, helping to develop larger projects, but that they are not properly regulated. "They contribute to building partnerships and mobilise wider civil society. Such projects are addressing real local problems and finding effective local solutions. Nevertheless, they are being questioned as they are not anchored in the Cohesion Policy regulations"

When it comes to the future of the cross-border programmes post 2020, the CoR recommendations highlight the need to decentralise management of small-scale and people-to-people projects, to allow greater flexibility and to anchor them in EU regulations.