Arrivals, roundtable and statements by Pascal ARIMONT (EPP, BE), rapporteur, Younous OMARJEE (GUE/NGL, FR), Chair of the Committee on Regional Development, Heinz HETMEIER, German Presidency, and Elisa FERREIRA, European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms at the final Cross-border Cooperation trilogue, in Brussels.

Final Cross-border Cooperation trilogue: arrivals, roundtable and statements by Pascal ARIMONT (EPP, BE), rapporteur, Younous OMARJEE (GUE/NGL, FR), Chair of the Committee on Regional Development and Elisa FERREIRA, European Commissioner for Cohesion

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Atmopshere in the trilogue meeting room, 14 shots

SOUNDBITE (English), Elisa FERREIRA, European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, We have understood during this crisis, covid crisis, how important the the relationship with the other side of the border is. We started by closing borders and then we realised that it was a disaster. So we reopened them and there are good signs of cooperation. So that's what we have decided now. It's how all what are the regulations on which you can structure for the period 21-27, these projects of cooperation across borders.

SOUNDBITE (English), Elisa FERREIRA, European Commissioner for Cohesion and Reforms, All over the new cohesion funds, we introduced some specificities to support cultural projects, touristic projects. And of course, it is absolutely compatible, I would say mutually reinforcing, to protect the borders, to protect the environment and to have a sustainable development agenda. And that's what we want to foster to foster for the future.

SOUNDBITE (English), Heinz HETMEIER, German Presidency, Yesterday, we could conclude on the common provisions regulation, today on Interreg. And that is a good day for Europe because it shows that institutions are able to act. It is good news for the regions in Europe and in particular for the cross-border regions who now have the relevant framework regulations in order to continue and to start new cooperations across the borders. I think this is an important step forward.

SOUNDBITE (French), Pascal ARIMONT (EPP, BE), Rapporteur, I am very happy that we have an agreement and the agreement on the budget is EUR 8.05 billion. This is a decrease from the budget of the previous period, but I have to accept that because there are budget cuts everywhere here too. So I accept it. I was still able to negotiate that in the Covid React EU funds, a clause has been inserted which also allows cross-border projects to be financed with these Covid funds. That's good news.

SOUNDBITE (French), Pascal ARIMONT (EPP, BE), Rapporteur,  The Covid crisis has shown us that cross-border cooperation on health is very important and I am very glad that we could somehow arrive at this text on this subject, which I care about.

SOUNDBITE (French), Pascal ARIMONT (EPP, BE), Rapporteur,  Regions are obliged to finance projects on combating global warming and on health. These were things that were very important to Parliament and we managed to have a compromise with the Council on that point.

SOUNDBITE (French), Younous OMARJEE (GUE/NGL, FR), Chair REGI Committee, We are very pleased with the conclusion of this agreement. At this time of the Covid crisis, where there is a lot of concern, a lot of questions and we want an Interreg program that is a powerful program of project construction in areas, targeted objectives that are incidentally the same as those negotiated in other settlements. Yesterday we concluded the general agreement on the general settlement of the funds. The Common Provisions Regulation and Interreg will also support projects concerning health, climate, on all these future issues.

Event date	02/12/2020
Reference:	I199700V
Format:	16:9 format
Copyright:	© European Union
copyrightYear:	2020

Final Cross-border Cooperation trilogue: arrivals, roundtable and statements by Pascal ARIMONT (EPP, BE), rapporteur, Younous OMARJEE (GUE/NGL, FR), Chair of the Committee on Regional Development and Elisa FERREIRA, European Commissioner for Cohesion

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