Starting from the understanding that functional area approaches in the EU need to be strengthened and the advantages that they trigger can no longer remain untapped, the European Commission and the World Bank Group signed an administration agreement to improve functional area approaches in the EU. Both institutions have as priorities to reduce poverty and social exclusion and create competitive and sustainable economies, in consequence, direct interaction is beneficial to them and to the beneficiary countries. As such, the functional areas in the EU, crossing administrative boundaries for green transition and sustainable development project is of utmost importance for the future of territorial development in the EU.

Its main objective is to enhance the capacity of participating functional areas to plan and finance investments and services across jurisdictional boundaries for sustainable development.

Overall, this transactional exercise focuses on both urban and non-urban functional areas, with the aim to:

1. offer support in addressing key development challenges;
2. offer support in preparing for the 2021-2027 Programming Period;
3. disseminate the key lessons learned, as well as tools and approaches developed within the project to other functional areas;
4. develop a toolkit that other functional areas could use to strengthen their territorial approaches;
5. organise knowledge exchange events in order to transfer findings and workable solutions to other interested functional areas in the EU.