Huesca Pyrenees | The Huesca Pirineos-Hautes Pyrénées project was set up to help stimulate the development of a sustainable, cross-border tourism model, through a series of measures to streamline, consolidate and promote the tourism sector in both regions, by bringing added value to natural resources and heritage shared as part of the Spain-France-Andorra Cooperation Programme (POCTEFA) 2016-13.
Description of the measures: creation, implementation and operation of a shared body to carry out the Huesca Pirineos-Hautes Pyrénées project, with the aim of:
- organising awareness-raising and communication activities to boost the involvement of local stakeholders;
- promoting the implementation of measures to improve the quality of tourism services;
- promoting strategic activities to develop a common tourism area;
- promoting measures to enhance tourist resources in the area.
It includes the development and operation of the Huesca Pyrenees | Hautes-Pyrénées Cross-Border Cooperation Centre, which is in charge of implementing the project's activities; partner institutions provide human and technical resources for monitoring and assisting with enforcement.
Building on the Cross-Border Cooperation Centre, the partners – the Provincial Council of Huesca (Diputación Provincial de Huesca) and the Departmental Council of Hautes-Pyrénées (Conseil départemental des Hautes-Pyrénées) – set up the EGTC Huesca Pyrenees–Hautes-Pyrénées in 2014.
Review of activities 2019
Tasks
The EGTC contributes to the development of cross-border cooperation policy. It also contributes to the aim of promoting a dynamic economic system in the border area, based on trade in goods and services where relationships were previously almost non-existent. The EGTC is currently implementing an Interreg POCTFA project in the area of agri-food products, gastronomy and tourism. It implemented the POCTEFA Hecho en los Pirineos-Fait en Pyrénées (Made in the Pyrenees) project over the course of three years from July 2016 along with two partners: the Hautes-Pyrénées Chamber of Agriculture and Huesca City Council.
The same period also saw dozens of activities being carried out by the partners. These included 12 cross-border markets for agri-food products, two cross-border food fares based on local produce and chefs, the organisation of logistics and the creation of a system for supplying locally produced food to canteens (schools, businesses, nursing homes, etc.), and efforts to develop routes promoting artisan agri-food products together with tourism.
By focusing on new tourism diversification strategies linked to both traditional activities (agri-food products) and new forms (gastronomy), the EGTC is boosting capacity for economic development and spreading a message of environmental friendliness.
The EGTC contributes to the Europe 2020 strategy by developing local strategies. Strictly speaking, the EGTC does not contribute to a macroregional strategy. However, the group takes part in exchanges with other EGTCs in the area as well as with public administrations involved with the aims pursued in the central Pyrenees region: a vision for economic development that turns the border area into a local market, given its proximity.
Budget
The budget for 2019 is set at EUR 587 689, derived from the implementation of the POCTEFA EFA 08/15 Hecho en los Pirineos-Fait en Pyrénées (INSPYR) project, which ran until 30 June, as well as from other individual cross-border measures.
EU-funded projects and programmes in phase of imple-mentation in 2016
INSPYR project through Interreg POCTEFA – budget of EUR 976 500 allocated to the EGCT, of which EUR 619 000 is from the ERDF.
Staff (in FTE)
Since the approval of the POCTEFA project, one person has been recruited for the role of director. Project management tasks are outsourced to service companies.
