Regional cooperation with Southern Neighbourhood partners

Regional cooperation in the European Neighbourhood complements national assistance programmes, addresses regional challenges, promotes cooperation amongst partners and builds bridges. It encourages South-North and South-South cooperation and promotes dialogue, exchange of views and knowledge sharing.

Regional cooperation usually involves all the countries in the Southern Neighbourhood , but can also take place at sub-regional level . It focuses on activities where:

the region is facing common challenges and thus where common approaches are most effective,
a shared resource is concerned for which common responsibility needs to be taken, such as the Mediterranean Sea ,
partners seek to move jointly towards more integrated economies, and need to work in a coordinated manner on such issues as transport networks or electricity transmissions.

Most of the regional cooperation activities support priorities agreed jointly by the partners in Ministerial meetings covering the region.

Regional cooperation offers a unique opportunity for people to sit around the same table and be part of a dialogue. As people work together, experiences are shared, relationships built, networks created and common activities carried out. While many of these projects involve technical dialogue with partner governments , civil society and other local stakeholders are also part of this effort.

Regional cooperation is mainly funded through the financial arm of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP), the European Neighbourhood Instrument (ENI).

To find out more about the activities funded visit the website EU NEIGHBOURS SOUTH http://www.euneighbours.eu/en/south/eu-in-action