Strengthening integration and resilience in European border regions
The actions piloto are strategic interventions promoted by the European initiative Resilient BordersThey are designed as concrete and transferable experiences to strengthen cooperation in cross-border regions in Europe. They function as territorial laboratorieswhere innovative solutions are tested that can become benchmarks for other European territories with similar challenges. The programme Resilient Borders has defined two priority areas for action:
Cross-border crisis managementIt is aimed at improving the common response capacity to natural, social or economic hazards that do not recognise borders.
Cross-border spatial planningwhich aims to promote shared, coherent and sustainable planning between municipalities and regions on both sides of the borders.
It is in this second area where the Action Piloto SP-7 "Eurocity of Guadiana - Sustainable Territorial Planning 2030".which seeks to lay the foundations for a more integrated, resilient and competitive territory through a joint agenda of strategic projects.
Sustainable Spatial Planning 2030
The Pilot Action SP-7 is developed within the framework of Resilient Borders and has as its direct beneficiary the Eurociudad del Guadiana EGTCwhich is made up of the municipalities of Ayamonte (Spain), Castro Marim and Vila Real de Santo António (Portugal).
Its main goal is to draw up a document on the coordination of local spatial plansThis instrument will serve as an instrument of consensus on the needs and strategic options of the three municipalities. This instrument will serve to promoting synergies and complementaritiesThe new system will help to avoid unnecessary duplication of services and ensure a more efficient and coherent management of the shared territory. The following are highlighted specific objectives:
To provide the EGTC and planning teams with an monitoring and evaluation tool for cross-border governanceThe project has been developed both in terms of urban planning and the environment.
Promote the coordinated and complementary management growth of the three municipalities, reinforcing territorial cohesion.
Create a joint cross-border planning documentwhich integrates the strategic recommendations of the Eurocity Urban Agenda and the Action Plans 2030.
SP-7 includes a series of work dynamics and planned activities:
Creation of inter-municipal working groups with technicians and policy makers.
Review of preliminary studies and strategic documents already drawn up for the Lower Guadiana, such as the Cross-border Territorial Development Strategy or the Manual of Good Landscape Practices.
Integrated territorial diagnosis and definition of joint strategic lines.
Organisation of citizen participation focus groups and exchange visits with other European cross-border areas.
Formalisation of a common political commitmentincorporated into the Eurocity Urban Agenda (2023).
The SP-7 Guadiana Eurocity defines the general framework for shared planning for the 2030 horizon. On the basis of this strategic work, the following have been established five Acciones Pilotowhich organise the Eurocity's main lines of action in terms of mobility, territorial planning, environmental sustainability, tourism and services.
Each Action Piloto acts as a thematic roadmap, and from these thematic roadmaps are derived. Pilot Projectsi.e. concrete, fundable and measurable initiatives that transform the territory. This relationship between strategy (Acciones Piloto) and execution (Proyectos Piloto) ensures that the shared vision is translated into visible results for citizens.
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