European Union new provides substantial financial support for CBC initiatives. Legally, the first cross-border regions were based on agreements with varying degrees of formality and mostly relied on good will. In 1980, on the initiative of the Council of Europe, the so-called Madrid Convention (Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co-operation) was introduced as a first step towards CBC structures based on public law. The convention has been signed by 20 countries and was more recently updated with two Additional Protocols. It provides a legal framework for completing bi- and multinational agreements for public law CBC among NCGs. Examples for such agreements are the BENELUX Cross-border Convention of 1989 and the German-Dutch cross-border treaty of 1991. The Euroregion Rijn-Waal on the Dutch-German border has been such a cross-national public body since 1993. However, the regulations delivered by such agencies are binding only on the public authorities within the cross-border area concerned and not on civil subjects (Denters et al. 1998). Compared with the Council of Europe, the CBC-related activities of the EU are primarily financial. Many CBC initiatives are eligible for support under the Interreg Community Initiative launched by the European Commission in 1990; this policy was re-confirmed as Interreg II in 1994 and as Interreg III in 1999. Types of European cross-border regions There are several ways in which cross-border regions can be distinguished. First, they vary in geographic scope. Small-scale initiatives such as the EUREGIO can be distinguished from larger groupings, such as the 'Working Communities'. The latter – most of them were founded between 1975 and 1985 – usually comprise several regions forming large areas that can stretch over several nation states. Examples of Working Communities are the Arge Alp, the Alpes-Adria, the Working Community of the Western Alps (COTRAO), the Working Community of the Pyrenees or the Atlantic Arc. Their organizational structures usually consist of a general assembly, an executive committee, thematic working groups and secretariats (Aykaç, 1994: 12–14), but activities tend to be confined to common declarations and information exchange. However, some groupings, such as the Atlantic Arc, succeeded in obtaining European funds (Balme et al., 1996). Smaller initiatives are technically referred to as micro cross-border regions but for simplicity they can be called Euroregions. Euroregions have a long tradition in certain areas of post-war Europe, especially on the Germany–BENELUX border where the expressions ‘Euroregion’ and ‘Euregio’ were invented. Organizationally, Euroregions usually have a council, a presidency,