EIXO ATLANTICO DO NOROESTE PENINSULAR

Eixo Atlantico is an Association of 41 local Authorities in Galicia and North of Portugal, including main cities of the Euro-region Galicia (Spain)-North Portugal such as Porto, Gaia, Braga, Santiago de Compostela or Vigo.

It is a supra-municipal entity in charge of defining common strategies for its members, working for a coordinated development in the Eurorregion Galicia-North of Portugal. Thus, the municipalities of Eixo Atlántico have been cooperating in several fields for almost 30 years.

Created in 1992 with the European Commission support, it was supported by Dr. Mário Soares, President of Portuguese Republic at that moment.

The Eixo Atlantico works for territorial cohesion and a cohesive organisation of the urban system in the Eurorregion, as well as for the modernisation of its members through cooperation, exchange of knowledge and joint strategic planning.

In addition, Eixo Atlantico is also a lobby to push for its members’ objectives in terms of dialogue with governments to promote territorial investments and to look for financing to implement strategies agreed at political level.

Currently, Eixo Atlantico Works under priorities:

Sustainable Development – Eixo Atlantico has recently created the first cross-border Urban Ecology Agency for Galicia and the North of Portugal, with the support of both Regional Governments concerned. Energy, waste management and sustainable territorial planning are some of the priorities under this pillar.
Innovation – Since 2009 Eixo Atlantico has been working in a Digital Local Agenda for the Euro region.
Territorial and social cohesion – Under this pillar, Eixo Atlantico works on various issues like transport, enhancement of cultural heritage, culture or tourism, to boost endogenous potential of our cities.

Developing its cooperation activities, the Eixo Atlántico works mainly in the following fields:

Modernisation of Administration, as a way to generate new services more effective to citizens.
Sustainable Development, as an instrument to optimize urban planning. In this context, the Eixo Atlantico has created the first Euro regional Urban Ecology Agency, in Vila Real (Portugal).
Culture; one of the main priorities of action to bring Eurorregional structures near to citizens.

Tourism, to develop the internal touristic potential of the 39 local authorities of the Eixo Atlantico as a mean for further socioeconomic development.
Sports, as axis to bring together cities and citizens.
Social Development, working in new organisational models and good practices in social and training fields.
Transport, to analyse the evolution and results of regional policies and make recommendations.

Work is done trough:

Studies, plans, programmes and projects, financed from national, European or international funds.
Bridging relations between agents, public or private structures and institutions working for development in border regions.

Finally, it is also important to highlight the work of Eixo Atlantico to disseminate the European process. In fact, since its creation, Eixo Atlántico has become a reference in cooperation activities, especially in the Eurorregion Galicia-North of Portugal where it promotes innovative actions, both individually and in cooperation with other institutions like Xunta de Galicia (Regional Government of Galicia) and CCDRN (Regional Government of North of Portugal).