This September take Cooperation Further!

On 21 September, Interreg Cooperation Day brings projects across Europe out of the meeting room and into the streets. Here’s how your project can join in, and why it’s worth the effort.

Every year on 21 September, and for the weeks surrounding it, towns, cities, and regions across Europe come alive with something a little different. Interreg Cooperation Day began in 2012 as a simple idea: open the doors of Interreg projects to the public for a day. Since then, it has grown into one of the largest coordinated public events in EU Cohesion Policy, and this year marks its 15th edition, celebrated under the theme “Stronger Together.”

The initiative is coordinated by Interact, which supports Interreg programmes in coordinating their work, aligning joint efforts and making Interreg better heard thanks to joint communication activities, like this one. Interreg projects are already delivering real results on the ground, Interreg Cooperation Day is simply a chance to make that impact more visible, through festivals, workshops, sports events and cultural celebrations that connect the people doing the work with the communities who benefit from it. In practice, the campaign goal is to show real results, reach the right audiences, build understanding of what cooperation achieves, and celebrate Europe’s diversity.

©Interact

What can you do?

Interreg Cooperation Day comes to life through projects like yours, and there are many ways to take part. Most likely, you already planned an event, activity or campaign around this time: you can simply connect it to Interreg Cooperation Day and frame it as part of the campaign. If the time allows, you can also prepare an event, activity or campaign that fits naturally with your project, or team up with another project nearby that’s planning something of its own. You can also use your social media channels (and/or your partners) to run a campaign celebrating cooperation.

The examples below range from simple ideas to activities that need a little more preparation, so take them as inspiration and choose what works best for your project: tech events (demo videos, tool showcases, short webinars); sports events (bike rides, hikes); nature events (clean-up drives, tree planting, cycling tours); cultural events (exhibitions, craft workshops, concerts); social events (picnics, open days, meet-the-project sessions) and multiple digital activities (campaigns activating your project partners or beneficiaries; videos; photo competitions; quizzes).

How to get started

Visit the website of Interreg Cooperation Day and lean on the resources and joint branding already built for you. Here are some ideas of what you can do:

• If you organise an event and would like to attract more attention to it, please send us details and we will help you feature your event on a joint interactive map, along other events running across Europe. Each featured event also gets its own dedicated page where more details about what you’re planning. Check it here.
• Link your activities to ongoing campaign in social media: use joint branding and remember: hashtags and tags are your best friends to spread the word! Use your channels, activate your partners and don’t forget to tag us!
• Anything worth promoting wider? Give us a note and we will guide how you could get extra paid promotion in social media by Interact.
• Read the campaign factsheet, with key facts and messages together in one place
• Explore the Interreg Cooperation Day Guide 2026, to learn more about Interreg Cooperation Day as such

Fifteen years in, Interreg Cooperation Day is still built on the same simple yet powerful idea: cooperation is worth celebrating out loud. We invite you to take part in celebrations in the best way fitting your project!

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