“We in the Congress are convinced that decentralised cross-border co-operation is a crucial factor for territorial development and territorial cohesion on our continent”, stated Thomas Andersson (Sweden, ILDG), Chair of the Current Affairs Committee of the Congress, speaking at the Annual Conference of the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR) on “New solutions for the future of cross-border regions”, in Novi Sad, Serbia, on 29 September 2022.

In his speech, Mr. Andersson highlighted the Congress’ contributions to territorial co-operation, presenting good practices and Congress recommendations regarding cross-border cooperation and making particular reference to the Congress resolutions on “Prospects for effective transfrontier co-operation in Europe” and “Inter-regional co-operation in Europe: trends and prospects”.

Mr Andersson also drew attention to the importance of youth as a generator of change, in line with the conference’s focus on youth participation in cross-border cooperation. “Promoting young people’s engagement in building transborder communities is certainly one solution to guaranteeing the future of cross-border regions”, he stressed.