28 Nov Local authorities of the triple border of the Uruguay River visit the territory of the Rio Minho to get to know firsthand the Minho cross-border cooperation model

A delegation of the Committee for the development of the triple border of the Uruguay River -which connects Uruguay, Argentina and Brazil-, composed of 15 people including technical staff and representatives of local entities from the three Latin American countries, arrived today in the territory of the Cross-border Rio Minho to exchange experiences on the management of borders delimited by rivers and learn firsthand the Minhot cooperation model as well as the cross-border projects developed around the Galician-Portuguese basin.

After a series of institutional visits to the Eurocities, the delegation was received at the Parador de Tui in an event attended by the director of the EGTC, Uxío Benítez, the deputy director of the EGTC, Rui Pedro Teixeira Ferreira, the mayor of Tui, Enrique Cabaleiro González, the president of the municipal chamber of Valença, José Manuel Carpinteira, the president of the Deputation of Pontevedra, Carmela Silva, as well as a wide representation of the mayors of the territory.

The meeting is an important opportunity to exchange knowledge between two very similar cross-border cases. Along these lines, the director of the EGTC Rio Minho, Uxío Benítez, emphasized the common challenges that both territories present about environmental issues. Specifically, in the case of the Rio Minho, he said that “a major challenge that lies ahead at the moment is to create a governance instrument that really jointly manages the river border of the Rio Minho and its natural environment”, explained the manager. The Rio Minho, despite being an area under European environmental protection (Natura Network 2000), presents various ecological problems that need to be tackled, added Benítez.

From the EGTC Rio Minho, it is hoped to get all the institutions and administrations that have sectoral competences at the environmental level to agree to start an investment project for comprehensive sanitation.

Exchange of experiences between water borders

The initiative consists of a study visit organized by the EGTC Rio Minho and the Association of European Border Regions (ARFE) and is part of the Triangular Cooperation program of the Adelante2 project of the European Union for the strengthening of cross-border governance in water basins, of which they are also part the Bolivian-Peruvian Binational Authority of Lake Titicaca, the Congress of Intendants of Uruguay and the Development Committee of that basin.

The day began with different institutional visits to the Eurocities of the territory, which will continue tomorrow, Tuesday, where the delegation was able to learn first-hand the cooperation work developed in the territory of the Cross-Border Rio Minho.

After the institutional reception held at the Parador de Tui, the program continued in the afternoon with the celebration of a “Euro-Latin American Seminar on development and local governance in international water basins”.