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This article focuses on the most meaningful aspects of a research aimed at the analysis of the state of the art of cross-border cooperation in Europe - through qualitative systems and analysis of quantitative data in fifty-three European border areas - taking into account actors, shapes and objectives with a particular attention to the Euroregional process. The research hypothesis is that putting into action mechanisms of cross-border welfare systems, organized in Euroregional structures, can be the basis not only for the elaboration of an original model for local development, which can be applied in areas influenced by a border, but also for legitimating more strongly the cross-border dimension of integration, on a cultural, economic and institutional level. The article is divided into two parts. The first part aims at providing a theoretical framework on the concept of border, cross- border cooperation and Euroregion, subsequently developing them through the analysis and evaluation of cross-border cooperation in Europe, with a particular attention to Euroregional variables. The second part concerns the concepts of local development and welfare, overlapping them, with the aim of setting them within a strict cross-border dimension and so to understand those factors which allow for their development. The model for such a cross-border welfare system was applied to the Italian-Slovenian cross-border context, analysed in terms of the quality of its cooperative process, of the Euroregional prospects, of the cross-border third sector, and of the development of institutionalised cooperation in the context of cross-border health care. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]