Border: France-United Kingdom
Overview
Cooperation programmes
Cross-border cooperation between France and the United Kingdom is supported by two distinct Interreg programmes.
Interreg VA France-(Channel)-England
The France-(Channel)-England programme brings together twelve French departments that are in the eligible area and twenty-four French departments in adjacent areas, and twenty English counties and unitary authorities in the eligible area and four in adjacent areas around the English Channel. It was adopted in September 2015 with financing of (increase of 22% compared to the corresponding period of 2007-2013).
The programme’s managing authority (and the French national authority) is the Norfolk County , which also runs the joint technical secretariat.
Divided into three funding streams, the programme aims at:
- promoting innovation in the English Channel area (€104.8 million in funding),
- supporting the transition to a low-carbon economy (€41.9 million in funding),
- improving the attractiveness of the English Channel area (€62.9 million).
One of the previous programme’s flagship initiatives was the CAMIS project (Channel Arc Manche Integrated Strategy), whose main goal was to develop and implement an integrated maritime strategy in the Channel area.
Interreg VA Two Seas (France-England-Belgium-Netherlands)
The “Two Seas” programme brings together four French departments (and two departments in adjacent areas), twenty-four English counties and unitary authorities (and four in adjacent areas), seventeen Flemish arrondissements (and ten in adjacent areas) and six Dutch provinces The total budget of the programme is €241 million (an increase of 50% compared to the period 2007-2013).
The programme’s managing authority (and the French national authority) is the Regional Council of Nord-Pas de Calais -Picardie and the technical secretariat is administered by the GEIE GECOTTI. This parastatal structure governed by French law, which was set up in 2004 by the Regional Council of Nord-Pas de Calais and the Wallonia Region, is the legal employer of the teams that make up the technical secretariats of the three Interreg programmes managed by the Regional Council (Two Seas, Interreg VB North-West Europe and Interreg VC). A specific feature of the programme is the presence of the Côte d’Opale Joint Association in the follow-up and steering committees.
The programme aims at developing the competitiveness, sustainable development, and growth potential of maritime and non-maritime assets in the cooperation area.
To achieve this goal, the programme stakeholders have defined four priorities:
- Technological and social innovation (improving production conditions of innovation and developing social innovation)
- Low-carbon technologies
- Adaptation to climate change (increasing resilience in public and private organisations)
- An efficient economy in use of resources (in particular through emergence of the circular economy)
