The 31st Iberian Summit will take place next Saturday, October 10th, in the city of Guarda. Cross-border cooperation and the articulation of a joint strategy for economic recovery are on the summit's agenda.
According to the information available, the "common strategy for cross-border development" will have five main axes:
– Encourage cross-border mobility, eliminate contextual costs and create the figure of the cross-border worker,
– Improve infrastructure and territorial connectivity, internet and mobile network: more rail and road, improve cartographic systems to facilitate the pilot project of the 5G network,
– Coordinate basic services such as education, health, social services: the cross-border 112 and the nearest ambulance service,
– Promote economic development and territorial innovation,
– Promote environmental services, energy, urban centers and culture.
Before listing the main open questions, however, we cannot fail to review the main lines of peninsular geopolitics. The nature of the political decisions taken in 2020/2021, due to the means involved and the uncertainty in which they occur, involves a high opportunity cost and can heavily condition the future of peninsular relations.
The geopolitics of peninsular relations
Firstly, we know that the Iberian border is one of the oldest, most stable and also least developed in the European Union, a remarkable achievement for our bilateral cooperation, knowing that proximity cooperation is a relatively abundant resource that can be used intelligently and collaboratively by the two neighbors. For historically well-known reasons, we are where we are today.
Secondly, we know that more peninsular integration is only recommended if we also have more and better European integration. This is a geopolitical condition of the greatest importance and must always be present in our geostrategic thinking for the next decade.
Thirdly, we also know that the Mediterranean and the Atlantic, after the Arab springs, Brexit, the suspension of the transatlantic treaty and the Trump presidency can generate unpredictable geopolitical consequences on the southwestern peninsular, justifying the creation of a post of privileged observation in this most western corner of the Eurasian peninsula.
Fourthly, we know that Spain, due to the health and socio-economic consequences of covid 19 and its community and regional consequences, is a real unknown for the time being and does not augur anything particularly auspicious in terms of cross-border cooperation, in particular , everything that results from its predictable regionalist turmoil.
Fifthly, in the current phase of the Eurozone, there is still no doctrine and strategy for a Europe of Regions, from Macroregions of 50 to 60 million citizens (the Iberian Peninsula) to Euroregions and cross-border Euro-cities; although there are already some trials, there is still a long way to go for these “young territorial communities” of countries, regions and cities.
Cross-border cooperation, outstanding issues
Taking all this into account, let us now take a look at the main political issues outstanding in peninsular relations, as the two main European support instruments are being prepared, the resilience and recovery program (until 2026) and the multiannual financial framework (until 2027 ), to which national, public and private resources are added. We already know, from the constantly reaffirmed political rhetoric, that the cross-border facade must be transformed into a new centrality of the Iberian single market and that this is an opportunity that will not be repeated. But beyond the political rhetoric, let us look at what is pending and deserves our attention.
– First, the missing links the road network are perfectly achievable within the time horizon of the recovery and resilience programme; among the most mentioned connections are Bragança/Sanabria, Nisa/Cedillo and Alcoutim/Sanlucar;
– Secondly, the rail connections linking our southern international corridor (Sines, Setúbal and Lisbon) with the Spanish border at Badajoz and future connections to Madrid via the southwestern Iberian network; the greatest difficulty lies in the time-scheduling of investments and the opportunity cost of the public capital involved (despite the European subsidies) at a time when we have accumulated a huge public debt;
– Thirdly, in line with the European Ecological Pact and the respective decarbonisation programmes, what are the emblematic investments that the two Iberian countries are prepared to carry out, in the framework, for example, of the Iberian electricity market (Mibel) and the energy matrix of renewable resources?
– Fourthly, and in line with the European digital agenda, what investments are the two countries willing to make to achieve digital coverage of border regions and what are the areas and pilot projects to install the first digital platforms collaborative;
– Fifthly, and again within the scope of the recovery and resilience programme, what are the two countries' disposition for an ambitious program in the area of climate change, water resources (water lines), but also regeneration natural capital and ecosystem services (landscape areas)?
– In sixth place, the two countries are willing to elect two or three Euro-cities, – Chaves/Verin, Elvas/Campo Maior/Badajoz and Castro Marim/VRSA/Ayamonte – to implement common cross-border services, for example: the management of transport, health and education services, employment and vocational training services, environmental services and energy, regional microcredit networks and through crowdfunding, management of cross-border spaces of coworking?
– Seventhly, it would be very positive to prepare, together with higher education institutions and research centers, a major program of cooperation in the area of scientific and technological research, with the movement of students, the joint qualification of diplomas, residencies scientific and professional internship programs with business associations;
– In eighth place, the two countries are ready to create the status of the cross-border worker and, on an experimental basis, a greenway for young people and seniors, in particular, patients at high risk;
– Ninthly, the two Iberian countries can create a common high-level structure for conflict resolution, as it is very likely that nuclear policy (Almaraz), water resources policy (transvasations), migration policy, policy of combating climate change, the policy on Gibraltar (UK), at least these, are at the origin of some misunderstandings and misunderstandings;
– Tenthly, the two countries can create a joint mission structure to jointly manage the operational program for cross-border cooperation for 2020-2030.
Final Notes
Now that the launch of the Resilience and Economic Recovery Program (PRRE) and the next multi-annual financial framework (MFF) for the 2020-2030s are being prepared, the launch of a “major program of physical and digital networks for the Iberian Southwest” is always possible. Without prejudice to this program for the decade, I believe, however, that the cross-border cooperation software cannot wait any longer.
In the context of the digital single market, the existence of universities and polytechnic institutes, inter-municipal communities, business associations and important cities along the border, is an excellent opportunity for bolder cooperation initiatives. In fact, in full digital society, in the time of hubs technological, of the appswhich start-ups and the spaces of coworking, we are obliged to give concrete evidence of this new territorial collective intelligence.
And why not start with existing Euro-cities? I suggest that the Euro-city of Caia and/or Guadiana, due to its centrality, be considered an emblematic project of the cross-border cooperation program, in terms of ecological transition, digital transition and sustainable development and that, for example, the 10 km between Elvas and Badajoz is an exemplary pilot area for peninsular integration.
Finally, a final word for Iberian cooperation at European level. In the decade that has just begun, the two Iberian countries have to defend the territorial cohesion policy in a very determined way: in the impacts of the digital single market, in fiscal harmonisation, in the allocation of state aid, in budgetary discipline and in the regional equalization of the area. euro, in the strengthening of European territorial cooperation groupings and a specific right to cross-border cooperation.
And, by the way, someone is in a position to predict the fiscal equation for the next decade and the budgetary impacts of this entire exercise throughout the decade, in a country with gigantic public and private debt and facing one of the biggest economic and social crises in the country. your story?
Author António Covas is a Retired Full Professor at the University of Algarve
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