• Good morning. First of all, I would like to say that it is a pleasure to speak once again in a EWRC event. In this case, my presentation is centred on presenting the importance of Iberian, that is, Portuguese-Spanish border cities to foster territorial development of what is known as Raia Ibérica, or the border area alongside the Portuguese-Spanish borderline. • As seen here, the promotion of Territorial Development entails a positive change, over a period of time, in several indicators associated several dimensions, including economic competitiveness, social cohesion, environmental sustainability, territorial governance and spatial planning. • And indeed, all that study local and regional development know that cities are engines of innovation and development. They attract economic activities and jobs they produce knowledge and have the bulk of institutional, financial and administrative capacity. Hence, border cities have a key role in boosting territorial development in normally socioeconomically lagging border regions, when compared with metropolitan areas. • But, in general, Raia Ibérica is known to be an eloquent European and Iberian example of an area with low population densities, and also with below average population growth rates; • Indeed, numbers from the past 20 years have witnessed a slight population reduction in the PT-ES border NUTS 3. • Then again Raia Ibérica encompasses some of the less socioeconomically developed Iberian regions, which is especially worrying in some Portuguese border NUTS 3 located in the northwest of Portugal. • In this context, it is not surprising that there are not that many large border cities in Raia Ibérica in a European Context. One can identity four Spanish cities: Vigo, Orense, Badajoz and Huelva. • Indeed, most of the Raia Ibérica urban centres are relatively far away from the borderline. • And only Badajoz can be considered a true large Iberian border city with its 150.000 inhabitants. • What is curious to see is that many of the Raia Ibérica urban centres lost population in the past 20 years. The exceptions are located along the three most dinamic cross-border axis (North-Galicia / Évora-Mérida / Faro – Huelva) • And that only a few are considered European Functional urban areas; • But this depopulation trends have negatively affected more the Portuguese urban areas than the Spanish along Raia Ibérica; • On a positive note, past years have witnessed the implementation of several Eurocities in Raia Ibérica, with 6 already established and one in the pipeline, aiming at solidifying institutional networking and strategic planning along the surrounding border area; • There are, however, for the most part, relatively recent cross-border institutional experiments, forged on unsound and still ineffective development strategies • For instance, the EUROBEC, emcopassing the cities of Elvas, campo Maior and Badajoz was implemented in 2018 with the following main cultural, planning and social goals, was basically shutdown when the borders closed during the current covid-19 pandemic. • Hence, in my view, to foster effective and pro-active territorial development, Eurocites need to implement a cross-border Plan to solidify Institutional Networking and strategic planning with improved articulation between existing spatial plans at all territorial levels, and to extend sources of financing.

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Eurocities,Border Cities,Raia Ibérica,Border Regions,Territorial Development