Environmental Protection needs good Administration: Ecological Applications of the New Legal Instrument “European Groupings of Territorial Co-operation (EGTC)”

Abstract

For decades the European Community’s member states have been co-operating with neighbouring states and their subdivisions in border regions, particularly at the regional and local level in correspondence to their respective jurisdiction. This form of neighbourhood co-operation across state borders is today generally termed ‘cross-border co-operation’. After a long period in which co-operation in legally non-binding arrangements appeared sufficient, state and administrative practice — in line with the increasing marginalisation of state borders in the course of European integration — now requires some new approaches involving obligatory organisation in transnational relations. A new legal instrument was created for this: European Groupings of Territorial Co-operation (EGTC).2