ECR Member and President of the European Cross-Border Platform Pavel Branda chaired the annual meeting of the ECBP, which took place in in Gorizia and was hosted by President of the Friuli-Venezia-Giulia and ECR member Massimiliano Fedriga. The city of Gorizia is the first cross-border European Capital of Culture together with Nova Gorica. ECR member Roberto Ciambetti spoke at the panel on "Resilient borders", and the meeting included high-level participation, including the keynote address by Raffaele Fitto, Executive Vice-President for Cohesion and Reforms of the European Commission.

"Today's meeting underlines, once more, the importance of removing cross-border obstacles of all kinds: local communities are asking for renewed efforts in this direction, to make cross-border life better for both citizens and companies. New challenges have also emerged due to the recent geo-political challenges, from the war in Ukraine to illegal migration, with significant impacts on border regions", said Mr Branda.

Executive Vice-President Raffaele Fitto underlined the progress made "in removing cross-border obstacles, yet many challenges remain, from technical to administrative barriers. This meeting is an excellent opportunity to discuss how we can best continue to remove obstacles, and make cross-border life simpler, better and more dynamic".

According to Branda, cross-border regions need to be more resilient so that they can better contribute to the EU’s growth and competitiveness. Participants underlined the difficulties that citizens, businesses and administrations in cross-border areas face in their daily lives: finding a job, have access to healthcare or commuting every day. 

"We need a stronger, simpler and more flexible Interreg, to make our border regions more resilient, also allowing them to better contribute to the EU’s growth and competitiveness", concluded Mr Branda.