Portugal and Spain created a cooperation network to develop border areas – Observer
More than three dozen public and private entities from Portugal and Spain created this Wednesday a cooperation network to share experiences and, together, will find development solutions in the border areas between the two countries.
The document that constituted REDCOT (Portugal — Spain Cross-border Cooperation Network) was signed this Wednesday at the Coach Museum, in Lisbon, in a ceremony “sponsored” by the Portuguese Minister of Territorial Cohesion, Ana Abrunhosa, and by the Minister of Territorial Policy of Spain, Isabel Rodriguez Garcia, correspondents for the Secretary of State for Regional Development, Isabel Ferreira, and for the Secretary General for the Demographic Challenge, Francesc Boya.
The network is already made up of 31 entities representing the entire Portuguese-Spanish border and emerged based on the Common Strategy for Cross-border Development, signed in Guarda, in October 2020, between rulers of the two countries.
The objective is for these entities to exchange experiences and identify the priority areas where they act to combat common problems on both sides of the border, such as asymmetries and depopulation.
According to minister Ana Abrunhosa, this document, signed more than two years ago, was a political document that contained a major flaw of having been “done from the top down”.
With the creation of the network, the situation is reversed and it is the various associations and entities that work at the local level that will be able to contribute and present solutions and their example to find cooperation solutions between the two sides of the border.
“What we are doing is institutionalizing something that we want, on a day-to-day basis, to result in concrete proposals so that we can then also feed them with funds, because there is no shortage of resources”, said the Portuguese minister, stressing that the network can help define priorities for development and distribution of funds in cross-border regions.
“The success of our common strategy does not depend only on money to finance our measures. Obviously, resources are important and we also want and are going to allocate resources to make this network more dynamic, so that, in addition to political support, it also has the financial means to strengthen itself and to bring its contributions to this common development strategy in an institutional way. cross-border,” he said.
Ana Abrunhosa highlighted that the creation of the network gives rise to commitments, such as correcting asymmetries, combating the isolation of isolated communities, “fostering growth dynamics” in the territories and “to make the frontier that the pandemic has created disappear”. [de covid-19] got up again.”
The Portuguese minister also highlighted several existing cross-border cooperation projects, such as the 112 cross-border, a health emergency pilot project in the North, between Portugal and Galicia, “which aims to be extended soon to all cross-border areas”.
Also noteworthy was the creation, in terms of labor dynamics, of the Practical Guide for Cross-border Workers, and various road and cross-border security connections, namely the extra protective connection from Lisbon to A Corunha, which on Tuesday received the support of Brussels.
“We want a multi-year sustainability strategy for cross-border tourisma common cultural agenda, the prevention of domestic violence and violence against women”, he added, also highlighting cooperation in matters of civil protection.