Co-operation programmes co-operating about co-operating

The 13 transnational co-operation programmes have got together to organise a massive joint conference in Katowice next week (15-16 Sept) on what transnational co-operation has achieved so far and what the future might hold.  Details are available here at the impressive website of the event.

The Border-crosser thinks this is an excellent initiative.  By its nature, co-operation is evidently much more geared towards working across boundaries and looking at what others are doing than other types of programme.  And yet, getting even co-operation programmes to work more effectively with other co-operation programmes is not always so easy.  There are certainly good examples out there: the cross-border programmes on the French-Belgian border involve each other in their programme meetings; the North Sea and Northern Periphery programmes have worked very well together on the Northern Maritime Corridor project.  However, these examples stand out to some extent because they are the exception rather than the rule.

So, anything that gets programmes talking to each other can only be a good thing.  And an event like this, with almost 700 people taking part, and backed strongly by the Polish Presidency, is a very good thing indeed.  And with proceedings being broadcast on the web, even those who can't make it Katowice can follow what's going on.