Politique de cohésion : la simplification à l’épreuve de la complexité d’Interreg

In almost three decades, European Territorial Cooperation (ETC), also known as Interreg, has risen from the rank of a Community initiative program to become a full-fledged objective of cohesion policy. This recognition should be linked to the contribution of Interreg programs to the objective of economic, social, and territorial cohesion. The refocusing of the different components of cohesion policy into two priority objectives also has as a corollary the stated desire to harmonize as much as possible the rules for implementing the programs, as well as the intervention methods of the various European Structural and Investment Funds (ESIF). In addition to seeking harmonization in terms of implementation, the European Commission also demonstrates, through its communications, a desire to simplify the rules and procedures. This paper examines how the specific features of Interreg are taken into account in this process, particularly in the light of the measures taken in terms of administrative simplification.