Dalla cooperazione all'integrazione: nuovi contesti e nuove sfide

At the earliest stages of the European integration process, local and regional authorities played a minor role. This situation, however, did not last long. After having created their own representative organizations, these authorities claimed for recognition at the European level. Initially the Council of Europe was more receptive than others to this new democratic reality. Starting from the late 50s, the first forms of cross-border cooperation linked cities and local authorities which were marginal, compared to their own States, but which shared many common problems. These partnerships gradually increased in number and intensity, giving rise to the Euroregions, an expression that indicates a wide range of institutional and organizational forms. While the Council of Europe, after the Outline Convention of Madrid (1980), created the first institutional framework for the Euroregions, the European Community (now EU) began to work on this issue, particularly on the development of European regional policy. The launch of the Interreg programmes in 1989 and the creation of the Committee of the Regions in 1993 represented a significant turning point in this direction. More recently, the EC Regulation 1082/2006 introduced the EGTC (European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation) which acts as an instrument of EU law to offer a solid legal framework to the Euroregions. Currently, the Treaty of Lisbon makes territorial cohesion one of the key objectives of the European Union.