The border regions in Europe are the connecting links of the European Union. Through collaboration across borders, national borders in Europe will lose meaning and get less and less important. To support the cross-border cooperation between countries, The European Union has created a subsidy program, Interreg, to support the cross border cooperation between countries. Interreg supports cross-border cooperation along the borders of Europe.
For the Dutch-German cross-border region there is a budget available with an amount of approximately 465 million euros, for the period 2021-2027. The objectives that will be reached with these resources, are described in the programme Interreg Germany-Netherlands.
The main objectives of the cooperation program is to promote economic growth, employment, social inclusion and better cooperation in the border region.
A natural person or a legal entity, organisation or a company can file a project application. Exclusively projects with Dutch and German cooperation, will be funded. The funding of the projects always consists of a personal contribution of the partners, EU-grant funding and often national and regional grant funding (e.g. ministries and provinces).