Association of European Border Regions

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AEBR and the other European regional organisations (i.e. the Assembly of European Regions (AER), the Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR), the Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions (CPMR), Eurocities, REGLEG (regions with legislative powers), European Association of Elected Representatives from Mountain Areas (AEM) have for decades been co-operating as equal partners in all important European issues.

In 2010, AEBR signed a cooperation agreement with the Euro-Institut Kehl.

There are also regular contacts to the Mission Opérationelle Transfrontalière (M.O.T.), an interministerial French organization aimed to promote Cross-Border Cooperation at the French borders and far beyond. It is unclear up to now what is exactly the European interest of the MOT, which tried to organize a "Euro-MOT" some time ago. In principle, an agreement was signed between the AEBR and the MOT, acknowledging the European strategic role of the AEBR and the focus on proximity CBC by the MOT. In any case, regular contacts are promoted in order to exchange views and experiences.

Together with AEBR, the following make up the five largest European regional organisations:

• Council of European Municipalities and Regions (CEMR);
  The CEMR combines local and regional authorities from all over Europe and as such most projects are launched at local level.

• Assembly of European Regions (AER);
  Created in 1985, the Assembly of European Regions (AER) is a political organisation of the regions of Europe and the speaker for their interests at European and international level. Its mission: to bring together the regions of Europe and to allow them to act in the construction of Europe and European integration.
  The AER currently has 250 member Regions from 26 countries and 12 member interregional organisations.
• Conference of Peripheral Maritime Regions of Europe (CRPM);
  The CRPM comprises local peripheral and maritime areas. In addition to representing the in-terests of these regions, the CRPM primarily deals with regional planning, and regional and cohesion policy.
• Eurocities.
  Eurocities is an association of Europe's large cities. CEMR and AER deal with all local and regional issues. AEBR, Eurocities and CRPM also handle gen-eral European issues with a local a regional slant, but their main focus is on specific member issues, e.g. AEBR deals largely with border- and cross-border issues.

In the 1990s, it emerged that a joint approach by European regional organisations in important areas was necessary and could be very positive. This led to a high-level meeting in March 2002 in Linz, Austria at which joint working documents were drawn up on the following areas:

• regional policy and cohesion,
• governance and the future of Europe
• transport networks in Europe,
• sustainable agriculture and protection of rural areas,
• sustainable development.

Top-News

• 16.05.2013
  From 19 April to 5 May 2013, 14 Latin American experts and politicians fron the border areas of Colombia, Ecuador, Peru and Bolivia visited the Spanish-French and the German-Polish border areas to exchange experiences and to transfer know-how.
• 14.05.2013
  ‘Cross-border culture’ workshops held on 25 and 26 April in Maastricht
• 02.05.2013
  EU-project: Improving information for commuters in European border regions - Interview with the AEBR published on the website of DG Employment
• 24.04.2013
  Draft opinion on frontier workers unanimously adopted by the ECOS Commission of the Committee of the Regions
• 18.04.2013
  AEBR representatives met Director General Walter Deffaa
• 12.04.2013
  Press Release with link to a summary Video of the 3rd Assises of Decentralised Cooperation celebrated at the Committee of the Regions on 9-10 April 2013.
• 12.04.2013
  Autoridades fronterizas de países de la CAN crean comité para diseñar Estrategia Andina de Cooperación Transfronteriza / Cross-Border Authorities of the CAN countries create Committee to design an Andean Cross-Border Cooperation Strategy (CAN = Comunidad Andina de Naciones)

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