The European Commission and the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR) initiated the b-solutions initiative in an effort to support border regions, which are home to around 150 million Europeans, almost one third of the EU population.
With the objective of improving cooperation across borders, b-solutions looks at:
– collecting information about obstacles encountered in various thematic areas (institutional cooperation, public services, labour market and education and European Green Deal);
– finding solutions to address them.
Specifically, b-solutions addresses obstacles of legal or administrative nature which hinder cross border cooperation. These obstacles can affect many aspects of life in border regions such as commuting, working, or managing a common nature protected area and resources, and they result in limited access to public services like transport or rescue because of different laws regulating operations, curtailed access to health care services, cumbersome procedures to access the labour market of the neighbouring region, and many more.
Eligible are all land and maritime border regions within the EU as well as along EU-IPA and EU-EFTA borders. As such, b-solutions complements the work of Interreg programmes and offers new tools to actors in border regions. Public bodies (cities, regions, hospitals, transport agencies, …) and cross-border structures such as Euroregions and EGTCs are invited to submit cases of cross-border obstacles.
Selected cases receive technical assistance from legal experts who analyse the root causes of the obstacles and suggest potential solutions to overcome the obstacle.
Participation complements Interreg funding and can benefit cooperation in the regions of an Interreg Programme, especially to improve access to joint public services and improve governance across the borders. It also helps raise awareness on cross-border cooperation and design better policies for European integration.
Applications are reviewed on a rolling basis with immediate implementation, and can be submitted via a simple online form, in any language of the European Union. Deadline to apply is 10 November 2023.
More information and the link to apply can be found here: Call for Proposals | b-solutionsproject
The b-solutions team is at disposal to exchange individually via Zoom to clarify doubts or guide potential applicants through the application. A call can be planned via this link: Select a Date & Time – Calendly
Contact: b-solutions@aebr.eu.