Analysis of European interregional cooperation under Interreg programmes. The case of Spain

The present article provides a detailed overview regarding the position of Spain and its Autonomous Communities in the European Territorial Cooperation (ETC) programmes where the whole country (or some regions) are eligible. This analysis compares the presence of Spain in terms of participation in projects funded by these programmes, focusing on three main variables: the regional scope, that is the relative presence of each Autonomous Community, the thematic scope, in terms of the different thematic axes of the programme, and in terms of the institutional scope, in terms of the typology of participating institutions. To perform this analysis, a brand new database has been generated, aggregating and treating data from eight different sources linked to the four programmes analysed: Interregs Europe, Atlantic, Mediterranean, and South West. The main result shown in the analysis is that Spain participates in ETC on the average of other EUs states, and that the distribution of this participation among AC depends on each programme and changes over the duration of the programming period; we also show that the distribution across the programmes’ thematic objectives is quite proportionally divided and somewhat in alignment with the use of ERDF in each territory; additionally, we conclude that the role of the private sector is still scarce and must be fostered.