Pavel Branda, Deputy Mayor of Rádlo and ECR Group Member, spoke at a joint meeting in Brussels of the Commission for Territorial Cohesion Policy and EU Budget and the European Parliament's Committee on Regional Development, held as part of the European Week of Regions and Cities.

In the discussion with MEPs and the commissioner, he highlighted the need to further strengthen support for cross-border cooperation. Three things were important for this, he said: money, cooperation mechanisms and the right legal framework.

Mr Branda highlighted the interregional cooperation programme INTERREG as a European asset and urged the need to increase its budget, as well as referring to the importance of cooperation mechanisms, such as Euroregions and the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation. He also focused on the European cross-border mechanism and its potential to help overcome and remove cross-border administrative and legal obstacles.

The new chair of the European Parliament's Committee on Regional Development and Johannes Hahn, the Commissioner-designate for Budget, welcomed his speech, saying they attached the same importance to cross-border cooperation.

The article was originally published by Liberecky Kraj website on 17.10.2019. It was adapted for the purposes of this newsletter.