The least that can be said is that governments firstly looked at the European Commission’s proposal to create a legal instrument specifically destined to facilitate territorial cooperation with mistrust. And also that they are taking their time to comply with EU legislation. In the terms of Regulation 1082/2006, member states had until 1 August 2007 to adopt the necessary provisions for the effective application of the regulation. On that date, only the UK and Hungary were in compliance. And still today, almost one year from this legal deadline, only eleven member states are compliant with their obligations (see box).

This slowness has exasperated the Committee of the Regions and the European Parliament, which have both already questioned the Council or the Commission in plenary session. The Commission has contented itself to send reminders to member states. And even though Regional Policy Commissioner Danuta Hübner has already mentioned before MEPs the possibility of infringement proceedings, things do not seem to be going in this direction for the moment. In brief, the Commission is playing for time: one year between the adoption of the text and the moment when states were supposed to have adapted their national legislation was “very ambitious” and many member states are already quite advanced in their internal procedures, explains the Commission.

“SPLIT THE PACKAGE”

“No added value,” “current instruments insufficient,” “incompatible with constitutional provisions” – these are the arguments put forward during the adoption procedure for the regulation, which shows that certain member states would have passed over this new instrument. The Commission’s brainwave was to present it in the framework of a global package on the Cohesion Policy, which also included legislative proposals for the 2007-2013 Structural Funds. It is doubtless this link with Structural Fund regulations which explains that it could have been adopted in less than two years. During these two years, some member states insisted on discussions on the European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) not being linked to the Cohesion Policy as a whole so that – shockingly – they do not delay its adoption. The tactic is known as ‘splitting the package’. But both the Commission and the European Parliament stick by the package and the regulation will be adopted at the same time as the others, which some consider a feat given the political sensitivity and the legal complexity of the subject.

ENHANCED POWER

Some states would like to limit the EGTC’s scope in cross-border cooperation (between border authorities), others in the management of interventions co-funded by Structural Funds, while others still did not want to see an instrument with legal personality created or tried to limit its competences. And though all these requests were ultimately unsuccessful, the member states’ fingerprint is definitely there. The regulation explicitly sets out, for example, that member states concerned will give their agreement on the participation of authorities which want to become a member of an EGTC, which was not planned in the base proposal. In the same way that they obtained the obligation to approve the conventions which define their tasks and the competences of the groupings (the Commission only proposed a notification to member states). Possibilities of banning the activities of an EGTC on a territory were also introduced.

The tasks which could be granted to the EGTCs are also subject to greater supervision in the final version of the regulation. They “are mainly limited to the implementation of territorial cooperation projects co-funded by the Community” through Structural Funds, member states were obliged to specify programmes which, necessarily, pass through their filter. These clarifications on the precedence of projects funded through Structural Funds does not figure in the initial proposal, which put cooperation actions funded by Structural Funds on an equal footing with those initiated without Community funding. Undoubtedly, the regulation sets out that the EGTCs can also carry out cooperation actions other than those co-funded through Structural Funds, but it clearly envisages them as the exception – even if experience until now shows that things have not happened like that – and gives member states the power to limit the mission of EGTCs constituted in this way. This power did not exist in the Commission’s proposal either.

Certain member states would have passed over this new instrument - This slowness has exasperated the Committee of the Regions and the European Parliament, which have both already questioned the Council or the Commission in plenary session

The eleven states which were compliant on 1 June 2008

- Hungary: since June 2007

- United Kingdom: since August 2007

- Bulgaria: since September 2007

- Portugal: since November 2007

- Romania: since November 2007

- Greece: since November 2007

- Spain: since January 2008

- Slovenia: since March 2008

- France: since April 2008

- Slovakia: since May 2008

- Denmark: since June 2008