The work carried out by the Urban Planning Committee of the EGTC GO, aiming at the progressive development of increasingly closer relations and exchange of information between the three municipalities with regard to the main challenges and shared interests in the field of urban planning in the cross-border area, continues. After a first meeting held on 7 May 2024, organised at the proposal of the Mayor of Gorizia, who intended to involve the EGTC GO as coordinator of the initiative, and during which the two municipalities of Nova Gorica and Šempeter-Vrtojba were presented with the anticipations on the document of the directives for the revision of the Gorizia urban plan, on Monday, 11 November 2024, the members of the Committee, the technicians of the three municipalities and the deputy mayors of Gorizia, Chiara Gatta, and Nova Gorica, Anton Harej, met once again to share the steps taken in the changes to the three municipalities' land-use plans to be approved in the coming years and to identify a modus operandi for sharing documents and strategic approaches.

What was new compared to the May meeting, testifying to the importance given by the three municipalities to the harmonious and sustainable urban development of the three cities, was the presence and active participation of municipal technicians, in addition to the designated members of the Committee and the deputy mayors with responsibility for construction and town planning, at the meeting. Various concrete issues were discussed at length, including the sharing of guidelines for the new urban development plans that the three municipalities are working on, and the identification of areas of tangency and shared points of interest that require similar strategic approaches (Corno stream, Soča river, Casa Rossa-Rafut cross-border area, etc.). The members of the committee and the technicians of the three municipalities repeatedly stressed the importance of spatial planning that mutually takes into account the existing challenges but also the needs and requirements of the entire cross-border area, pointing out that although it is not yet possible to envisage joint urban planning, given the permanent regulatory and administrative differences, such cooperation represents a significant added value that meets the needs of the citizens and the three municipalities as a whole. In this regard, it was emphasised during the meeting that the municipalities of Nova Gorica and Šempeter-Vrtojba are involved and are cooperating in the preparation of the regional land use plan that will encompass the entire cross-border urban area.

All the members of the committee, the technicians and the two deputy mayors present, were in full agreement on the documents that will be prepared for the adoption of the new town plans in the coming years.

The meeting also recalled the fundamental role played by the urban planning committee in the implementation of the Isonzo-Soča project, which is still one of the two qualifying points and a concrete example of an effective project managed by the EGTC GO and financed by the EU, whose beneficiary is the cross-border territory. It will be important to continue in this vein, perhaps implementing this project with an Isonzo-Soča 2 or carrying out other project ideas in collaboration with the three universities in Gorizia and Nova Gorica and experts in the sector. The EGTC GO will therefore undertake to identify additional resources from European, national and/or regional calls for proposals for the implementation of new projects that have the following priorities: sustainable urban development, sport, sustainable cultural tourism, environmental protection with special reference to the Soča region, demographic decline, economy, sustainable mobility and road infrastructure (urban and suburban mobility).

In relation to urban mobility, the Coordinator of the urban planning committee and member of the EGTC GO Assembly Livio Semolič pointed out the need for an adjustment of the city signposting in Gorizia, so that it would be consistent by indicating the names of the three member municipalities of the EGTC GO and not only their states.