The European Commission, through DG REGIO, has launched a forward-looking debate on the future of Interreg as part of preparations for post-2027 Cohesion Policy - calling for stronger spatial data and sharper priorities to ensure cooperation programmes deliver where they matter most.

To support this process, ESPON was tasked with a challenging undertaking: to create the profiles of all 48 border areas that cover every single Interreg A programme area in Europe. ESPON responded with the COREIB project, which produced a complete mapping of all cross-border areas covered by Interreg, based on standardised data across a highly diverse set of regions.

Each profile (about 90 pages) combines quantitative analysis with visual tools to capture the specific dynamics, assets, and challenges of individual cross-border regions. Taken together, they give policymakers, programme authorities, and stakeholders a common factual starting point enabling pan-European comparable assessments across borders.

This evidence feeds into a policy process that will include stakeholder consultations, participatory exchanges, and thematic discussions. An overarching report explains the methodology and key findings, while a Technical Annex documents the underlying data and processing methods in full. 

All the publications can be found under the project page and in our library. All the visual outputs (maps and graphs) delivered for this project are accessible (at a high resolution) through the ESPON portal.

 

The 48 border areas, corresponding to the programme areas, are the following:

• Belgium-France (Wallonie-Vlaanderen-France)
• France-Belgium-Germany-Luxembourg (Grande Région/Großregion)
• Austria-Germany/Bavaria
• Germany-Austria-Switzerland-Liechtenstein (Alpenrhein-Bodensee-Hochrhein)
• France-Switzerland
• Italy-Switzerland
• Germany/Bavaria-Czechia
• Germany/Saxony-Czechia
• Poland-Germany/Saxony
• Germany/Brandenburg-Poland
• Germany/Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania/Brandenburg-Poland
• Slovenia-Austria
• Slovakia-Austria
• Austria-Hungary
• Italy-Austria
• Italy-Slovenia
• Italy-Croatia
• France-Germany-Switzerland (Upper Rhine)
• Greece-Italy
• France-Italy (ALCOTRA)
• Italy-France (Maritime)
• Italy-Malta
• Spain-France-Andorra (POCTEFA)
• Spain-Portugal (POCTEP)
• Germany-Denmark
• Sweden-Denmark-Norway (Öresund-Kattegat-Skagerrak)
• Sweden-Norway
• Sweden-Finland-Norway (AURORA)
• Finland-Estonia-Latvia-Sweden (Central Baltic)
• Poland-Denmark-Germany-Lithuania-Sweden (South Baltic)
• Germany-The Netherlands
• Belgium-The Netherlands (Vlaanderen-Nederland)
• Maas-Rijn/Meuse-Rhin/Maas-Rhein (Netherlands-Belgium-Germany)
• Romania-Bulgaria
• Greece-Bulgaria
• Greece-Cyprus
• Czechia-Poland
• Slovakia-Czechia
• Austria-Czechia
• Poland-Slovakia
• Hungary-Slovakia
• Slovenia-Hungary
• Hungary-Croatia
• Slovenia-Croatia
• Romania-Hungary
• Estonia-Latvia
• Latvia-Lithuania
• Lithuania-Poland