The CROSSGOV project, dedicated to functional cross-border regions in Europe, offers a new perspective on the dynamics of territorial cooperation at European level. Funded under the ESPON programme between July 2024 and January 2026, it aims to better understand how populations, infrastructure and institutions interact across national borders, in a context marked by administrative fragmentation and recent crises.
The initiative stems from a political and territorial observation: despite several decades of European integration, border regions continue to face structural obstacles. Existing mechanisms — the single market, Interreg programmes, European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation (EGTCs) and Eurodistricts — have enabled significant progress, particularly in reducing legal and administrative barriers.
However, institutional, economic and cultural disparities between Member States continue to limit the effective integration of cross-border territories.
A territorial approach to European borders
The core of the project is based on the concept of ‘Cross-Border Functional Areas’ (CBFAs), i.e. areas in which daily mobility, economic exchanges or social interactions transcend national borders. CROSSGOV seeks to move beyond traditional administrative approaches to analyse territories according to their actual uses.
For the first time, the project proposes a harmonised delineation of 85 cross-border functional areas at a pan-European scale, at the municipal level. This mapping is based on five weighted indicators: population density, cross-border travel time by car, mobility data from Twitter, social connectivity from Facebook, and a harmonised assessment of natural risks. The analysis covers land border corridors as well as certain short-distance maritime links.
This methodology makes it possible to identify different levels of functional intensity, ranging from highly integrated urban centres to rural or mountainous peripheries. Case studies include the Trinational Eurodistrict Basel between Switzerland, Germany and France, the Spanish-Portuguese border area, the Mont Blanc area between France, Italy and Switzerland, and the Kras-Carso-Trieste region between Italy and Slovenia.
Governance, cooperation and vulnerabilities
Beyond mapping, CROSSGOV is developing a comprehensive compendium of cross-border governance structures in Europe. The project analyses 199 cooperation initiatives covering the entire ESPON area, distinguishing between formal and informal structures, the institutional levels involved and the themes of cooperation.
The study highlights the diversity of existing governance mechanisms, but also their limitations. Several cases reveal a mismatch between institutional boundaries and the actual functional dynamics of the territories. The closure of borders during the Covid-19 pandemic also demonstrated the fragility of certain cooperation mechanisms, particularly in regions that are highly integrated economically and socially.
This political dimension is central to the project. CROSSGOV views border regions as laboratories for European integration, but also as areas exposed to tensions between national sovereignty and multi-level governance. The stated aim is to help European, national and regional policymakers develop instruments better suited to territorial realities and to avoid one-size-fits-all approaches.
Data, interactive atlases and case studies
The project also produces several digital tools for public decision-makers, researchers and local stakeholders. The CROSSGOV Hub, hosted on the ESPON portal, brings together interactive atlases, thematic analyses and visualisations specific to forty European border pairs.
The analyses focus in particular on mobility, the environment, climate risks, the economy, social ties and governance. Ten in-depth case studies have been carried out in a variety of territorial contexts to examine the different forms of cross-border integration.
The project thus examines the Trinational Eurodistrict Basel, a trinational area centred on the Basel conurbation, the Greater Region spanning Luxembourg, Belgium, Germany and France, as well as the Helsinki-Tallinn region, characterised by intense maritime and digital flows between the two capitals.
The study also includes the Fehmarnbelt region between Germany and Denmark, the twin towns of Komárno-Komárom between Slovakia and Hungary, as well as Gmünd and České Velenice between Austria and the Czech Republic. Other case studies focus on the Newry-Dundalk urban corridor between Ireland and Northern Ireland, the EUROBEC Eurocity between Badajoz, Elvas and Campo Maior on the Spanish-Portuguese border, the Kras-Carso-Trieste region between Italy and Slovenia, and the tri-national Mont Blanc Area.
The project consortium brings together several universities and specialist organisations, including Friedrich-Alexander University Erlangen-Nuremberg, the Politecnico di Torino, the University of Luxembourg, the University of Helsinki and the Association of European Border Regions.
