On 16 December 2025, the Interreg North-West Europe (NWE) Annual Event took place at the European Convention Centre in Luxembourg, bringing together more than 340 participants from over 70 projects across North-West Europe. The shared focus of the day was clear: cooperating for lasting impact.
The event featured inspiring plenary discussions, thematic networking sessions, project pitches and a lively project gallery, showcasing how Interreg NWE projects are already delivering results – and how these can be taken one step further through capitalization.
The Opening Plenary focused on scaling up, rolling out and sustaining project impact in the long term. BEPROACT was proud to take a seat on the panel of this opening session. Ingeborg Absil, Director for Mobility and Infrastructure Quality at Rijkswaterstaat and BEPROACT Steering Group Chair, represented the project and highlighted Interreg as a true game changer for enabling transnational exchange, innovation development and application. She stressed the urgency of placing Europe’s Critical Infrastructure Resilience high on the EU priority agenda, particularly as the EU Multiannual Financial Framework (MFF) is being shaped. In addition, she called for a more inclusive and accessible pathway for market and industry participation in Interreg programmes, alongside public authorities, SMEs, academia and NGOs. Her reflections underlined how connecting policy, innovation and the market can lead to lasting, system-level impact.
The event also marked the official launch of the first Interreg NWE Capitalization Call, opening new opportunities to extend project results across territories and communities.
It was also great to see a strong BEPROACT representation in Luxembourg, with live participation from Alex Cornelissen (RTC4Water), Ninon Ferré (Bourgogne-Franche-Comté), Natalie Oonk-Abrahams and Joan Staeb (Rijkswaterstaat). Proud also to see fellow Rijkswaterstaat Lead Partner projects in the poster gallery and giving pitches to share knowledge and extend networks: ResiRiver, CircularShift, ConnectedRiver and RuralRoadWaterRescue.
Together, we are reinforcing the case for corridor and network resilience, stronger policy–innovation–market alignment, and broader industry participation in Interreg. By keeping momentum through collaboration across EU projects – and at times across EU programmes – we continue sharing insights and strengthening our collective voice as MFF priorities take shape.
Thank you to the EU Interreg NWE Joint Secretariat for a great event! Watch a video about the event below.