Joint strategic approach to climate-neutral development in the three-country region - kick-off of the EU project TriLand

The "TriLand - Cross-border Transformation Centre" project aims to intensify cross-border exchange on the energy transition and thus make better use of opportunities for regional transformation in the three-country region of Saxony-Lower Silesia-North Bohemia. It is funded as part of the European cooperation programme Interreg Poland-Saxony 2021-2027. The energy transition and the regional transformation towards climate neutrality pose particular challenges for the coal regions. Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic have had different approaches and experiences in dealing with transformation processes. The structured exchange planned in the project should help to utilise these experiences in order to avoid repeating past mistakes. The aim is to promote sustainable development in the region and increase the competitiveness of the area with a view to the energy transition and coal phase-out.

The aim of the project is to establish a joint communication platform, training measures on regional transformation processes and the cross-border exchange of decision-makers from politics, administration, business, science and civil society in so-called transformation arenas. "We want to create the basis for strategic cooperation in the three-country region, for the joint development of a vision and the pooling of existing strengths," says Agnieszka Spirydowicz, Chairwoman of the Zgorzelec Cluster for the Development of Renewable Energy Sources and Energy Efficiency (Zklaster) and coordinator of the TriLand project.

At the project's kick-off conference, Dr David Michel, Head of the International Relations Department in the Saxon State Chancellery, the Marshal of the Lower Silesian Voivodeship, Paweł Gancarz, and the Hejtman of the Liberec Region, Martin Půta, welcomed the initiative for this project. In their welcoming speeches, they emphasised its importance for the intensification of trilateral cooperation and the implementation of the declaration of intent on transformation processes in the three-country region, which representatives of the three regions had only signed in March 2024.

A panel discussion at the end of the conference also focussed on the question of how the energy transition and regional transformation can become an opportunity for the three-country region. Moderated by project coordinator Agnieszka Spirydowicz, the three presidents of the Neisse-Nisa-Nysa Euroregion, Martin Půta, Dr Stephan Meyer and Jerzy Łużniak, discussed this with Dr Maciej Zathey, Director of the Institute for Territorial Development in Wrocław. "The discussion highlighted how important not only cross-border exchange is, but also the involvement of science and cooperation between the administrative levels," emphasised Prof. Dr Robert Knippschild from the Interdisciplinary Centre for Transformative Urban Regeneration (IZS) of the Leibniz Institute of Ecological Urban and Regional Development (IOER) and project partner on the Saxon side.