B-Solutions initiative helps border territories tackle legal and administrative challenges

A new call for proposals has been opened with the objective to support public bodies from borderline areas

B-solutions is a pilot initiative, promoted by the Regional and Urban Policy Directorate General (DG REGIO) of the European Commission. It aims to identify and promote sustainable methods for tackling legal or administrative issues in cross-border areas within the European Union. In general, the current call for proposals, opened in January, calls on to applicants to report what difficulties the citizens and businesses face when acting beyond national borders.

The topics of the call include:

• Employment;
• Health;
• Transport of passengers;
• Multi-lingualism;
• Institutional cooperation;
• Information services;
• eGovernment;
• Evidence and data.

This second call is open to public bodies and cross-border entities, which could involve partners from EFTA countries. More precisely, national, regional and local administrations with a national boundary limiting their territory and cross-border entities like European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation (EGTCs), Euroregions, Eurodistricts, Eurocities and similar cross border structures with legal personality, even if they are not public bodies, can apply. This amounts to 448 NUTS-3 territories located alongside at least one national boundary where roughly 150 million Europeans live.

35 of the projects will be given support by expert, through which to evaluate and address the issues more efficiently. Deadline for applications is 15^th March 2019.

Find full application package at B-Solutions project.