European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation: Giving a Voice to Local and Regional Government in European Infrastructure Development

Abstract

Since the Rhine–Alpine Corridor can be considered a spatially coherent axis with a multitude of common interests and interrelationships between the individual regional areas of the Corridor, there is a wide scope for cooperation. It was already clear at the beginning of the strategic initiative CODE24 that not all of the complex challenges of this major European axis could be solved in the 5-year project period. Therefore, a solution for continuing cooperation beyond the funding period of CODE24 had to be found. Consequently, the preparation of an appropriate legal form for further cooperation became one major objective of the partnership.

The establishment of a European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) became the aim as a means to enable the regions, cities and other stakeholders of the Rhine–Alpine Corridor area to continue their cooperation, to speak with one voice and to keep on developing the Corridor jointly. The EGTC is now called 0 the Interregional Alliance for the Rhine–Alpine Corridor and was established during CODE24’s final conference in November 2014 in Mannheim.