The INTERREG IV France-Wallonie-Vlaanderen Programme 2007–2013, which is co-financed by the

European Union The European Union (EU) is a supranational political and economic union of member states that are located primarily in Europe. The union has a total area of and an estimated total population of about 447million. The EU has often been des ...

, aims at intensifying the

cooperation Cooperation (written as co-operation in British English) is the process of groups of organisms working or acting together for common, mutual, or some underlying benefit, as opposed to working in competition for selfish benefit. Many animal a ...

in a cross-border area{{cite web , url=http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/cooperation/crossborder/index_en.htm , title=Regional Policy Inforegio – Territorial Cooperation , accessdate=2011-01-10 , url-status=dead , archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20110317071055/http://ec.europa.eu/regional_policy/cooperation/crossborder/index_en.htm , archivedate=17 March 2011 of 62,000 km² with around 10.5 million inhabitants: the provinces Hainaut,

Namur Namur (; ; nl, Namen ; wa, Nameur) is a city and municipality in Wallonia, Belgium. It is both the capital of the province of Namur and of Wallonia, hosting the Parliament of Wallonia, the Government of Wallonia and its administration. Namu ...

Luxembourg Luxembourg ( ; lb, Lëtzebuerg ; french: link=no, Luxembourg; german: link=no, Luxemburg), officially the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg, ; french: link=no, Grand-Duché de Luxembourg ; german: link=no, Großherzogtum Luxemburg is a small lan ...

, Western Flanders and Eastern Flanders in

Belgium Belgium, ; french: Belgique ; german: Belgien officially the Kingdom of Belgium, is a country in Northwestern Europe. The country is bordered by the Netherlands to the north, Germany to the east, Luxembourg to the southeast, France to th ...

and the departments

Nord-Pas-de-Calais Nord-Pas-de-Calais (); pcd, Nord-Pas-Calés); is a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region Hauts-de-France. It consisted of the departments of Nord and Pas-de-Calais. Nord-Pas-de-Cala ...

Aisne Aisne ( , ; ; pcd, Ainne) is a French department in the Hauts-de-France region of northern France. It is named after the river Aisne. In 2019, it had a population of 531,345.Ardennes The Ardennes (french: Ardenne ; nl, Ardennen ; german: Ardennen; wa, Årdene ; lb, Ardennen ), also known as the Ardennes Forest or Forest of Ardennes, is a region of extensive forests, rough terrain, rolling hills and ridges primarily in Be ...

in France.

Means used

The total budget of the INTERREG IV France-Wallonie-Vlaanderen Programme amounts to 276 million Euros, 50% of which financed by the European Union through the

European Regional Development Fund The European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) is one of the European Structural and Investment Funds allocated by the European Union. Its purpose is to transfer money from richer regions (not countries), and invest it in the infrastructure and se ...

. The balance is taken care of by the operators and the regional or territorial institutions concerned. On 30 June 2010, 83% of the European funds were already invested. The

Steering Committee A committee or commission is a body of one or more persons subordinate to a deliberative assembly. A committee is not itself considered to be a form of assembly. Usually, the assembly sends matters into a committee as a way to explore them more ...

s indeed approved over 140 projects, which are co-financed by the European Regional Development Fund up to 114 million Euros.

Set of themes

The INTERREG IV France-Wallonie-Vlaanderen Programme is structured around 4 main axes: * furthering economic development of the area by means of a coherent and integrated cross-border approach; * developing and promoting the identity of the cross-border territory through

culture Culture () is an umbrella term which encompasses the social behavior, institutions, and norms found in human societies, as well as the knowledge, beliefs, arts, laws, customs, capabilities, and habits of the individuals in these groups.Tyl ...

and

tourism Tourism is travel for pleasure or business; also the theory and practice of touring (disambiguation), touring, the business of attracting, accommodating, and entertaining tourists, and the business of operating tour (disambiguation), tours. Th ...

; * strengthening the feeling of belonging to a common space through the improvement of the offer and by making access to cross-border services easier; * dynamising the joint management of the territory through the sustainable, coordinated and integrated development of the living environment.

Institutional partners

Wallonia Wallonia (; french: Wallonie ), or ; nl, Wallonië ; wa, Waloneye or officially the Walloon Region (french: link=no, Région wallonne),; nl, link=no, Waals gewest; wa, link=no, Redjon walone is one of the three regions of Belgium—alo ...

is the Administrating authority of the programme. It coordinates the realization of the cross-border actions with: * the Prefectures of the Regions of Nord-Pas de Calais,

Picardy Picardy (; Picard and french: Picardie, , ) is a historical territory and a former administrative region of France. Since 1 January 2016, it has been part of the new region of Hauts-de-France. It is located in the northern part of France. Hi ...

, and

Champagne-Ardenne Champagne-Ardenne () is a former administrative region of France, located in the northeast of the country, bordering Belgium. Mostly corresponding to the historic province of Champagne, the region is known for its sparkling white wine of the ...

* the Regions of Nord-Pas de Calais, Picardy, and Champagne-Ardenne * the Departments of Nord, Pas-de-Calais, Aisne, and Ardennes * the French Community of Belgium * the

Flemish Region The Flemish Region ( nl, Vlaams Gewest, ),; german: Flämische Region usually simply referred to as Flanders ( nl, link=no, Vlaanderen ) ; german: link=no, Flandern is one of the three regions of Belgium—alongside the Walloon Region and t ...

* the Provinces of Western and Eastern Flanders.

Results of the programme

A selection of the outcome: * 600 jobs created or maintained; * 208 cross-border training sessions; * 115 cooperation actions between competency centers; * 62 international promotion actions of the cross-border area; * over 1,200 joint cultural events; * 322 integrated actions aiming at reducing

energy consumption Energy consumption is the amount of energy used. Biology In the body, energy consumption is part of energy homeostasis. It derived from food energy. Energy consumption in the body is a product of the basal metabolic rate and the physical activity ...

; * about a hundred actions aiming at furthering

bilingualism Multilingualism is the use of more than one language, either by an individual speaker or by a group of speakers. It is believed that multilingual speakers outnumber monolingual speakers in the world's population. More than half of all E ...

; * ...

Notes and references

External links

Website of the Interreg France-Wallonie-Vlaanderen Programme
European Union Regional policies of the European Union