Territorial cooperation (Interreg programmes, macro-regions and neighbourhood instruments) exist to create new partnerships across international borders. Many of these programmes have worked for decades to make borders intangible and to bring citizens together, learning from our differences and embracing our similarities. The social dimension of territorial cooperation has a huge relevance and we felt it more than ever when COVID-19 hit hard and radically changed our lives. Several Interreg projects, with no direct relationship to healthcare, found a way to adapt their activities to support this joint response. But before that, territorial cooperation was already striving to have a great impact on social matters, such as gender equality, youth, employment and ageing, among others. 

And that’s the aim of the ‘Inclusive Growth postcards’: highlight the social impact of Interreg.  

This set of 76 postcards has seen the light thanks to the collaboration of the Interreg and wider territorial cooperation community, including neighbouring and pre-accession instruments (ENI and IPA), outermost regions (OMR) and macro-regions. The postcards have a clear objective: to prove that Interreg has a real impact on social issues. The social dimension is commonly identified under the European Social Fund (ESF), but it is also effectively tackled by cooperation among regions. These 76 projects focus on 5 themes to show the value of that cooperation: 

• Ageing 

• Health 

• Employment 

• Youth 

• Skills 

Each of these categories gathers projects from all forms of territorial cooperation and also shows, at a quick glance, key features such as total budget, EU contribution, number of partners or participating regions.

Enjoy the read!

Download the e-book in pdf format with all postcards at this link.