On 14 February 2025, the CEI-Executive Secretariat participated in a seminar on “Territorial Cooperation in Europe and in the Region Friuli Venezia Giulia”, organised by the Department of Social and Political Sciences of the University of Trieste.
The event offered the opportunity to reflect on cross-border areas as laboratories of European integration, as well as on the role regional organisations like the CEI can play in this domain.
The CEI has been actively contributing to these objectives for several years, also through the implementation of cross-border, transnational and interregional projects.
In this regard, best practices in the areas of environmental protection and sustainable mobility were presented, such as the Interreg projects ASAP (Adriatic Sensitive Areas Protection – mechanism) and SUSTANCE (Sustainable public transport solutions and innovative governance schemes for improving connectivity in Central Europe).
The importance of these collaborative efforts was highlighted underlining that these projects not only allow for the development of joint solutions to common challenges, but also help build transnational, multi-stakeholder and multilevel communities of practice. These communities play a crucial role in consolidating a common European culture based on cooperation, trust, information exchange and knowledge transfer. Within this framework, synergies between EU members and candidates can be optimised, thus facilitating the adoption of EU standards and ultimately contributing to European integration.
For more info: lombardo@cei.int