Council agrees negotiating mandate for a regulation on facilitating cross-border solutions

Member states’ EU ambassadors today reached agreement on the Council’s negotiating mandate for a new regulation on facilitating cross-border solutions.

The proposed regulation aims to facilitate cross-border interactions and promote the development of cross-border regions by making it easier to tackle cross-border challenges, such as the development of infrastructure and the operation of cross-border public services. Its key feature is the creation of cross-border coordination points within member states to handle cross-border files submitted to them, either by communicating with initiators on behalf of the competent authority or by assessing the file themselves.

In its mandate, the Council supports the creation of a new legal framework for addressing cross-border obstacles to complement existing possibilities. However, it limits the scope of the framework to regions with land borders and makes it completely voluntary for member states to decide whether to set up cross-border coordination points.

Member states who set up such coordination points would also retain full freedom to decide whether and how to solve cross-border obstacles. Furthermore, the obligations for member states not willing to set up cross-border coordination points would be limited.

In addition, under the Council’s mandate only public or private law entities would be able to initiate cross-border files, while natural persons would not be able to do so.

Next steps

The agreement on the Council’s negotiating mandate allows the presidency to begin talks with the European Parliament on the final text, once the Parliament is ready.

Background

In May 2018, the Commission proposed a regulation on a mechanism to resolve legal and administrative obstacles in a cross-border context. However, member states suspended the discussions on the file due to concerns over compliance with the principles of subsidiarity and proportionality.

On 12 December 2023, the Commission presented an amended proposal to take into account the concerns and recommendations made by the two co-legislators and to follow up on the Parliament’s own-initiative legislative resolution from September 2023.

The European Parliament adopted its negotiating mandate on the initial Commission proposal on 14 February 2019.

Further information: European Council