The European Commission’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy (DG REGIO) awarded a contract to ÖIR GmbH (Austria) as contract leader, HÉTFA Research Institute (Budapest), along with Nordregio (Sweden) and the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR), to conduct a cross-border regional labour market analysis. This decision came after a successful joint tender offer in response to the “Cross-border regional labour market analysis” Call under reference number REGIO/2022/OP/0030, published by DG REGIO in November 2022.
The purpose of the project was to produce analyses of regional labour markets from a cross-border perspective: viewing cross-border regions as a whole rather than the sum of two (or more) separate parts. The project’s tasks aimed to gather information on the current state of play in cross-border labour markets, develop methodologies and approaches to produce cross-border datasets and cross-border labour market analyses, and produce labour market analyses for a set of cross-border regions.
The project emphasised the governance aspects of labour market policies and it was expected to provide valuable insights into cross-border regional labour markets, contributing to evidence-based policymaking and promoting effective regional development strategies.
A brief initial survey at the end of May 2023 among AEBR members received 31 replies from the BE/DE/NL, BE/NL, CH/DE/FR, DE/AT, DE/CZ, DE/DK, DE/FR, DE/NL, DE/PL, DK/SE, ES/FR, ES/PT, FI/RU, FI/SE, FR/LU, FR/LU/DE/BE, HU/HR, HU/RO/RS, IT/AT, IT/SI, and NO/SE cross-border areas.
Then we invited stakeholders to participate in the core survey for this project. This “core survey” was designed to help us formulate future guidelines for cross-border labour market analyses and data collection, informed by current experiences. This will support policy-making, thereby strengthening integration and territorial cohesion in cross-border regions.
We invited relevant actors in the field to share their valuable experiences about data analysis practices and limitations regarding cross-border labour markets and daily commuting. By answering the survey questions, they contributed to the project’s objectives. The survey was available in 13 languages (English, German, French, Spanish, Polish, Romanian, Serbian, Italian, Slovak, Portuguese, Bulgarian, Greek, and Hungarian), with easy-to-select options on the start page, and the deadline was set for 31 August 2023.
The Final Report is available on the EU Publications Office website.
This handbook, prepared by the project, is intended to reinforce cross-border regional labour market analyses, and it is available on the EU Publications Office website.
On the ÖIR’s website, you can also find links to these documents, as well as to the following case studies: AT-HU, BE-NL, DE-DK, DE-FR-CH, DE-PL, EE-LV, ES-FR, HU-SK, IT-SI-HR, PT-ES, and SE-DK.
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