Cooperation that changes lives: marking Interreg Cooperation Day 2026

Borders may divide regions on a map, but many of the challenges we face do not stop at them. Cleaner waters, stronger businesses, resilient communities and better public services often depend on people, organisations and regions working together.

This is the idea at the heart of Interreg Cooperation Day, celebrated every year on 21 September and throughout the surrounding weeks. Across Europe, Interreg programmes and projects organise events that bring cross-border cooperation closer to citizens and show how working together can create tangible benefits in people’s everyday lives.

In 2026, the campaign also marks its 15th anniversary. Since 2012, Interreg programmes, projects and partners have used Cooperation Day to make the results of European territorial cooperation more visible. Over the years, the campaign has brought together more than 300,000 participants at over 1,570 events across Europe.

For the Central Baltic Programme, cooperation is something very practical. Our projects bring organisations from different countries together to tackle challenges they share – and to develop solutions that can work across borders.

This September, our colleagues in Åland and Finland are contributing to the celebrations with two events that put this idea into practice.

Turning shared challenges into new opportunities in Åland

On 21 September, municipalities, businesses and development actors will meet in Mariehamn for “How can we create more value together?”, Åland’s Interreg Cooperation Day event.

The interactive afternoon focuses on a simple question: what becomes possible when different sectors look at sustainability challenges together?

Participants will explore how municipalities’ needs can meet the expertise, ideas and innovation capacity of businesses and other actors, to identify opportunities that could develop into concrete cooperation and future projects.

The event will also take cooperation out of the meeting room with a visit to Emmaus’ new Construction Reuse Centre at Svinryggen. Developed within the Central Baltic-funded Waste to Value project, it provides a practical example of how cooperation around a sustainability challenge can generate environmental, social and economic value.

From project results to lasting impact in Finland

A few days later, on 24 September, the Finnish Interreg community will gather at Musiikkitalo in Helsinki for “Interreg in Finland: From Results to Impact.”

The joint event brings together project actors, stakeholders and cooperation partners from different Interreg programmes to discuss not only what cooperation has already achieved, but also what comes next.

The programme looks at the future of Interreg and the next programme period, effective partnerships and networks, as well as the concrete impact of Interreg projects on regional and local development. Central Baltic is also represented among the project examples discussed during the day.

These events are part of a much wider European cooperation network. With 86 programmes, each covering a specific geographical area, Interreg spans the entire European continent and beyond, supporting regional development and cohesion while helping to reduce economic disparities. For the 2021–2027 programming period, the 86 programmes have a combined budget of EUR 8 billion to allocate to projects through calls for proposals.

Together, the events in Åland and Helsinki reflect what Interreg Cooperation Day is ultimately about: turning cooperation from an abstract European concept into something visible and useful.

Whether it is finding new ways to reuse materials, helping regions learn from one another or building partnerships for the next generation of projects, cooperation starts with bringing people together around a shared challenge.

And that is worth celebrating on 21 September and throughout the year.