For Austria, as a country with long borders, a high proportion of border regions, and strong international interconnections, cooperation approaches are of particular importance.

For many years, EU cohesion and regional policy has promoted the exchange and cooperation of regions from different member states. To this end, the European Union has created specific instruments, such as cooperation programs under the objective of "European Territorial Cooperation" (ETC or Interreg), the European Urban Initiative (EUI) within the framework of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF), and the Macro-Regional Strategies (MRS). All these instruments aim to develop solutions for existing challenges in specific geographical areas (at the national, regional, or local level) and to better unlock the potential of these areas.

From the available instruments, "spatial cooperation pillars" can also be identified for Austria:

• Cooperation in the Alpine region: Interreg Alpine Space & EUSALP (in addition, the Alpine Convention should also be mentioned here, although it does not fall within the responsibility of the NCP).
• Cooperation in the Danube region: Interreg Danube Region & EUSDR
• Cooperation in Central Europe: Interreg Central Europe
• City cooperation: URBACT, EUI, and Urban Agenda
• EU-wide cooperation on EU spatial development and regional policy: INTERREG EUROPE (ESPON: not managed by the NCP, Territorial Agenda, etc.)
• Cooperation between Austria and its neighbouring countries (Cross Border Cooperation), whose projects also contribute the above-mentioned spatial cooperation pillars: Austria participates in seven cross-border Interreg programmes

Under the European Territorial Cooperation (ETC or Interreg) objective, three types of programme are used for cross-border, transnational and EU-wide interregional cooperation. Details on the programmes can be found on the respective subpages.

The Macro-regional Strategies portal provides you with a general overview of the macro-regional strategy concept as well as detailed information on the two macro-regional strategies with Austrian participation: EU Strategy for the Danube Region (EUSDR) and EU Strategy for the Alpine Region (EUSALP).

The section ‘Info-Service Austria’ serves to support Austrian project organisers and interested parties. In addition to a description of the services offered by the Austrian National Contact Point (NCP), you will find information on Austria's financial control system, announcements of NCP events and published publications.

National Contact Point Austria

The National Contact Point Austria (NCP), financed by the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management, provides support and information services for the transnational and interregional programmes in which Austria is directly involved. This task encompasses dissemination of information, advisory services to project applicants, support of beneficiaries, facilitation of networking opportunities, etc. Furthermore, the NCP provides an information portal on macro-regional strategies with Austrian participation on behalf of the Federal Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry, Regions and Water Management. In addition, the national Urban Contact Point for the European Urban Initiative has been part of the NCP team since September 2023.