The joint meeting of the Municipal Councils of Nova Gorica, Gorizia and Šempeter-Vrtojba took place on Wednesday, 11 February, at the EPICenter in Nova Gorica. The meeting was attended by around sixty participants, including municipal councillors from the three municipalities and members of the Assembly of the EGTC GO, confirming the broad institutional engagement on strategic issues concerning the cross-border area. The three councils had previously met in 2024. Wednesday’s meeting carried strong symbolic value, as it marked the definition of a shared path in the immediate post–European Capital of Culture period.

The meeting was opened by the Mayor of Nova Gorica, Samo Turel, who highlighted the strong European recognition achieved by the area through the experience of GO! 2025. He stressed that a shared approach represents the only viable strategy for addressing future challenges in an international context marked by growing tensions. The Mayor underlined the need for a common territorial strategy, for structured cooperation in responding to environmental and climate-related challenges, and for the long-term valorisation of the resources activated in connection with GO! 2025—going beyond the event dimension and supporting the area’s structural development.

In his address, the Mayor of Gorizia, Rodolfo Ziberna, emphasised the importance of the resources linked to the European Capital of Culture title and the need to integrate them through shared services, avoiding duplication and optimising investments. Key topics also included the vision of a cross-border university city as a driver of development, the reversal of negative demographic trends in the area, and the strengthening of operational links between the EGTC GO commissions and the municipal administrations, with the aim of making projects quickly implementable and verifiable in terms of feasibility.

Representing the Municipality of Šempeter-Vrtojba, Mayor Milan Turk acknowledged the work carried out by the other municipalities and by the EGTC GO, reaffirming the commitment to invest in raising the quality of cultural and infrastructural initiatives. Among the results achieved, he highlighted the renovation of the Kulturni dom, a 240-seat facility designed to serve all three communities, the intention to pursue the continuous development of the industrial zone to make it attractive to a wider area, and the shared willingness to work together on road infrastructure, traffic and transport as integrated networks.

The Director of the Javni zavod GO! 2025, Mija Lorbek, presented an overall assessment of the GO! 2025 experience, underlining the positive feedback received at European level, particularly from the European Commission’s cultural bodies. Data on events and tourist flows were shared, highlighting how the period of high intensity was accompanied by a strong focus on sustainability for residents and contributed to strengthening the area’s long-term attractiveness.

Subsequently, the Director of the EGTC GO, Romina Kocina, outlined the work carried out by the EGTC GO within the framework of GO! 2025: from the progress of the SPF projects to the redevelopment of Piazza Transalpina / Trg Evrope, from the development of the go2025.eu platform to coordination tools between institutions, as well as the questionnaire and the future Citizens’ Assembly. She also recalled the EGTC GO’s commitment to securing European funding in support of shared territorial strategies, to reviewing committees to enhance their operational effectiveness, and to building an increasingly structured form of cross-border cooperation with a long-term horizon extending to 2045.

In the concluding debate, municipal councillors from the three municipalities highlighted several key issues: the economic harmonisation of the border area in order to operate as a single territory, the strengthening of the cross-border structure, the overcoming of still-existing barriers—particularly linguistic ones—through investment in education and training, shared environmental management, and integrated mobility designed for residents and not only for tourists. A call was also made for more frequent joint meetings between the municipal councils.

The meeting concluded with a clear and broadly shared confirmation: cross-border cooperation represents the fundamental strategy for the future of the area.