This is how the idea was born

Having moved beyond the infrastructure phase, cross-border territorial cooperation within the European Union has been evolving towards a new concept that gives primacy to the preponderance of the daily lives of artificially separated citizens.

The cooperation of proximity, through the Eurocities, extends today across all borders as a laboratory for the construction of Eurocitizenship, of a shared life among equals, being Chaves and Verín two territories with solid bonds of exchange and cooperation between their people.

The idea of creating institutional structures to strengthen relations between the two has a long history and has been cherished by both municipalities for some time.

However, it was the opportunity provided by the new European Community programming for 2007-2013 and its interest in territorial cooperation that gave the definitive boost to an objective intended to contribute to growth and employment.

Chaves and Verín have two very important characteristics to become one of the first European experiences of this type. Firstly, the political will of the administrations (local, provincial, autonomous and national) to carry out the initiative. Secondly, its condition as a gateway to the interior axis of the Euroregion Galicia-Northern Portugal: an interior axis that requires support measures due to its character as a low density territory, to allow its convergence with the coastal axis.

The current consolidation process of the Eurocity Chaves-Verín has its origins in the movement of institutional and territorial cooperation initiated in 1991 with the legal constitution of the Working Community Galicia-Northern Portugal (CTG-NP) and, in 1992, of the Atlantic Axis of the Northwest Peninsula, which defines the institutional and operational contours of the so-called Euroregion Galicia-Northern Portugal.

In July 2007, with the entrance of the municipality of Verín in the Eixo Atlántico, this ambitious project starts, which has been promoted from the beginning by the Eixo Atlántico, the Government of Portugal, the Regional Government of Galicia and the Provincial Council of Ourense. Thus, in September 2007 was organized the Institutional Working Group responsible for the political impulse and the follow-up of the initiative and where are represented all the institutions mentioned, including the municipalities of Chaves and Verín.

On December 18, 2007, the official presentation ceremony of the Eurocity Chaves-Verín and its Visibility Plan took place at Chaves.

Finally, in January 2008, following the mandate of the aforementioned Institutional Working Group, work began on a Strategic Agenda of the Eurocity to define the profile of the Eurocity Chaves-Verín.

 

To this end, a work methodology based on a bottom-up approach was adopted, taking into account the opinion of social and economic agents, as well as of citizens and political and social leaders. In this way, it was sought to establish development guidelines that could meet the expectations of all Eurocitizens.

Constitution of the EGTC

In the context of proximity cooperation, the EGTC's have emerged as an innovative European legal instrument that allows local authorities from different member states to set themselves up as cooperation groupings with legal personality.

 

This legal instrument represents a new step in the elimination of existing obstacles in the joint management of projects and programmes, as well as the management of equipment, infrastructure and services for the population in border territories, resulting in a significant cross-border impact and added value in the existing territorial cooperation between certain municipalities on both sides of the border.

 

In 2010, the two municipalities began work to establish the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation Eurocity Chaves-Verín, henceforth Eurocity Chaves-Verín, EGTC, which culminated with its inscription in the register of European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation, of the Spanish Ministry of Foreign Affairs and, finally, in the European Register of EGTC of the Committee of the Regions.

 

History of its constitution

• 18 December 2007
  • Official presentation ceremony of the Eurocity Chaves-Verín
• 11 May 2010
  • Start of work on the draft agreement and draft Statutes of the European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation Eurocity Chaves-Verín
• 15 June 2010
  • Approval in the Verín Plenum of the participation of the Municipality of Verín in the Eurocity Chaves-Verín, EGTC
• 30 June 2010
  • Approval in the Municipal Assembly of Chaves
• 20 July 2010
  • Submission of Verín's application to the Ministry of Finance and Public Administration of Spain
• 12 August 2010
  • Sending the application from Chaves to the Financial Institute for Regional Development (IFDR)
• 6 March 2013
  • Publication in the Republic Diary, Series II, No. 46, of Order 3554/2013 of the Deputy Secretary of State of Economy and Regional Development authorizing the participation of Chaves in the Eurocity Chaves-Verín, EGTC
  • http://dre.pt/pdf2sdip/2013/03/046000000/0831808319.pdf
• 13 March 2013
  • Authorization by the Ministry of Finance and Public Administration of Spain for Verín's participation in the Eurocity Chaves-Verín, EGTC
• 9 July 2013
  • Signing ceremony of the agreement of the Eurocity Chaves-Verín, EGTC by the mayor of Chaves and the mayor of Verín
• 17 July 2013
  • Inscription in the Register of European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Cooperation of Spain
• 26 July 2013
  • Publication in the Boletín Oficial del Estado, no. 178, of the Statutes and Agreement of the Eurocity Chaves-Verín, EGTC
  • http://www.boe.es/boe/dias/2013/07/26/pdfs/BOE-A-2013-8151.pdf
• 2 July 2013
  • Publication of a notice of the creation of the Eurocity Chaves-Verín, EGTC, in the Official Journal of the European Union (2013/S 149-260012)
  • http://ted.europa.eu/udl?uri=TED:NOTICE:260012-2013:TEXT:ES:HTML
• 10 February 2014
  • Inscription as 46th European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation in the Committee of the Regions' European Register
  • https://portal.cor.europa.eu/egtc/CoRActivities/Pages/Eurociudade-Chaves-Verin.aspx
• 11 May 2021 
  • Registration of EGTC in Portugal (Chaves delegation), in the National Register of Legal Entities, with Portuguese VAT number