Spatial planning to overcome border obstacles: experiences between Galicia and Portugal

Across the Galicia–Northern Portugal border, recent efforts to advance cross-border spatial planning (CBSP) provide insight into its practical functioning and inherent limits. This paper examines two CBSP processes developed between 2023 and 2024 within the framework of the Rio Minho EGTC and the future Raia Seca Gerês/Xurés EGTC, adopting a reflexive approach inspired by Action Research and grounded in the direct involvement of the authors in their design and implementation. The analysis focuses on how CBSP was developed, revised, and reoriented over time in these contexts. The findings show that CBSP operates primarily as an open and adaptive process in which participatory dynamics substantially reshape initial orientations, shifting the emphasis from economic and infrastructure priorities towards governance, environmental, and socio-cultural dimensions. At the same time, tensions emerge between institutionally predefined boundaries and territorially perceived spaces, while nation-state logics remain visible in service provision and in the interpretation of competences. Taken together, the cases suggest that CBSP is better understood as a governance practice oriented towards the construction of shared territorial visions than as a binding regulatory instrument.