Future perspectives on territorial cooperation in Europe [Electronic resource] : the EC regulation on a European grouping of territorial cooperation and the planned Council of Europe third protocol to the Madrid outline convention concerning euroregional co-operation groupings

The aim of this paper is to describe, analyze and compare the recent legal developments regarding territorial cooperation that can be observed on the international and supranational level in Europe: the EC Regulation on a European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation adopted in 2006, on the one hand, and the planned Third Protocol to the European Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co–operation between Territorial Communities and Authorities concerning Euroregional Co–operation Groupings of the Council of Europe, on the other hand. Which future perspectives for territorial cooperation in Europe do these two new tools open and what could be the added value of having two (rather similar) instruments? These are just two of the questions standing behind this paper, entitled “Future Perspectives for Territorial Cooperation in Europe”, which–towards its end–will eventually come back to one of the most crucial determinants for the future development of territorial cooperation in Europe, i.e. the attitude of the national states towards CBC and their respective constitutional provisions.