Cross-Border Impact Assessment: for all border regions

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Since its establishment in 2015, the ITEM expertise centre has specialised in analysing border effects. In several dossiers, border effects have been investigated and recorded in a Cross-Border Impact Assessment. An overview of the dossiers in recent years, as well as for this year, can be found here

A Cross-Border Impact Assessment, however, is not only important for the Dutch border regions, but for all border regions that have internal EU borders. Two further steps have been taken recently by ITEM, to make the methodology wider known and usable. 

In the recent paper 'Cross-Border Impact Assessment for EU's Border Regions' in the peer-reviewed European Journal of Law Reform, ITEM researchers Martin Unfried, Pim Mertens, dr. Nina Büttgen and prof. dr. Hildegard Schneider discuss the need and design of a Cross-Border Impact Assessment at European level, as the discussion now exists under the Better Regulation developments by the European Commission. As discussed in the paper, effective analysis of border effects requires a multi-level approach, where border effects are assessed at regional, national and European level.

The methodology developed by ITEM has now been included in the mandatory quality requirement Border effects when developing new or amending policy and legislation in the Netherlands. As a result, border effects should be identified and considered at the earliest possible stage. ITEM, together with the Euro-Institut in Kehl and the MOT (Mission Opérationnelle Transfrontalière) in Paris, has been commissioned by the Auswärtiges Ambt in Germany to further study a border effects test for the German border region, specifically with France, and to deliver a study. This work will take place this autumn. With this, ITEM is further committed to developing the border effects methodology at various levels for all border regions.