Environmentally Oriented b-solutions Cases : Towards the Implementation of the 2019 EU “Green Deal” in Cross-Border Contexts?

Trillo-Santamaría, Juan-Manuel and Vila-Lage, Roberto and Paül, Valerià (2024) Environmentally Oriented b-solutions Cases : Towards the Implementation of the 2019 EU “Green Deal” in Cross-Border Contexts? JOURNAL OF ADVANCED STUDIES ON BORDERS COOPERATION AND DEVELOPMENT. pp. 68-83. ISSN 3057-9872

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Abstract

The research article evaluates the role of the b-solutions initiative in advancing the 2019 EU Green Deal within cross-border regions. While the environmental agenda is a flagship of European policy, this research finds that only 16% of total b-solutions cases are classified as environmental or "green," highlighting a relatively limited participation in this sector compared to other domains. The geographical distribution of these cases is heavily skewed, with 40% concentrated in the macro-region comprising Germany, France, and the Benelux countries, which reflects the historical intensity of cooperation in the "nerve centre" of the Union. This paper categorizes the environmental cases into seven thematic areas, finding that waste, recycling, and pollution management is the most frequent focus, followed by biodiversity and protected areas. These cases often address the fundamental contradiction between humans' administrative borders and nature’s borderless reality, tackling specific hurdles such as incompatible national definitions for emergency vehicles, heterogeneous waste transport regulations, and technical barriers to cross-border Renewable Energy Communities. The study concludes that while b-solutions provides practical, localized achievements in areas like sustainable mobility and water management, it has yet to fully address the most transformative goals of the Green Deal, such as large-scale greenhouse gas emission reductions. Ultimately, the initiative acts more as a tool to reinforce and "fine-tune" existing cross-border structures, such as Interreg and EGTCs, rather than serving as a primary inductor of broad environmental change.

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