European Territorial Cooperation programmes 2021-2027: consultation

We asked for your views on the design of European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) programmes for the 2021-2027 period. ETC (also known as Interreg) programmes are EU funding programmes that give money to organisations from different countries to work together on a project. The Scottish Government was keen to inform our own thinking on the design of the future programmes, so that we could work together with partner countries in the programmes to design something which meets our shared needs.

We also asked for your views on themes that are important to you; how you think working together with organisations from other countries could help you or your organisation or your members’ organisations; and how ETC programmes could improve communications. Furthermore, we sought your opinions on each of the seven ETC programmes Scotland currently participates in.

We received a total of 21 response to the consultation, largely from representative organisations, public sector organisations, including local authorities, and business support organisations. The responses show a clear preference for participation in the next programming period. Reasons for this are summarised below:

• ETC is a well-established way to facilitate meaningful and mutually beneficial international collaboration (this was also noted in the Consultation into the Replacement for the European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF) Post-EU Exit in Scotland)

• It helps to identify new solutions to common challenges in a cost-effective way which minimises duplication by enabling the pooling of knowledge and resources.
• It allows partners to achieve “critical mass to develop, test and pilot specialised/ innovative actions and activities in ways that would not be possible working in isolation”.
• The key themes from the consultation are green and blue priorities (low carbon, blue economy, renewable energy). Geographical priorities include the Island of Ireland and Nordic countries.

It is important to note that the consultation opened before the current Covid-19 crisis. While some responses did make reference to it, other responses may have been formulated before the full economic and societal impacts began to be realised. In the wake of the crisis, the world has dramatically changed and priorities for the next programming period will change too. This report, and the consultation responses that informed it, remain valid nonetheless as valuable contributions towards planning for the next programming period.

An analysis of the responses to the consultation has been published here. The responses to the consultation will continue to help inform Scotland’s approach to involvement in the 2021-2027 ETC programmes. We will also use the responses to lobby for Scotland’s continued participation in ETC programmes.