The year 2015 marks the 25th anniversary of Interreg, the European Union a instrument to promote cross-border,transnational and interregional cooperation. Introduced in 1990 it was primarily tasked to compensate for the introduction of the Single Market and soften the blow for border regions, which, everyone thought, would suffer most from the abolition of economic borders. By 2015 it has been seen as one of the main and indispensable tools fostering development a creating cohesion across borders thereby giving a completely new meaning to cooperation among authorities and communities living in the border areas.
For more information about the history of Interreg in a special publication that seeks to provide a key to understanding the complexity, richness and diversity of the examples of territorial cooperation in Europe and illustrating their role in the process of European integration.