Hungarian-Slovak EU region created

The iconic Mária-Valéria bridge over the River Danube, linking the cities of Esztergom in Hungary and Stúrovo in Slovakia, provided the backdrop for the launch of the first European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC) in central Europe.

Luc Van den Brande, president of the EU’s Committee of the Regions (CoR), who was guest of honor at last week’s ceremony, hosted by the mayors of both cities and the Ister Granum Euroregion, hailed the EGTC as a “bridge to bring ideas to life.”

The EGTC regulation, adopted by the European Parliament and Council in July 2006, provides a legal basis for joint services delivered by local and regional authorities in different member states of the Union. Other public bodies and partners, including member states themselves, can also participate in an EGTC. Once established, it can help regions and partners to more easily access and manage EU, national or private funding for programs and projects.

Esztergom and Štúrovo aim to pool their resources on 20 joint projects under the EGTC, including a regional healthcare system, new port facilities, the rebuilding of five bridges across the Danube, a regional tourist agency, and bilingual TV and radio broadcasts.

Van den Brande congratulated the Hungarian and Slovakian authorities for transposing the EGTC regulation into national law “in an impressively short space of time.” The pact, signed at Esztergom’s royal castle by Mayor Tamás Meggyes and his Štúrovo counterpart Ján Oravec, is only the second such agreement in the EU. The first was unveiled by the Lille-Kortrijk-Tournai Eurometropolis (in French and Flemish Flanders) on Jan 28 this year.

created by: Zuzana Polacikova