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For more than six decades, the European Union (EU) has promoted, one way or the other, systematic European territorial integration, understood as the process of reducing many kinds of cross-border barriers. This article debates the role of the EU b-solutions initiative in facilitating cross-border commuting in Europe via its contribution to a body of knowledge, which, in its practical application, has the potential to act as a resource to be drawn on in the mitigation of a wide range of legal-administrative barriers. A theoretical framework for relating cross-border commuting and cross-border barriers is set out, and existing cases from the b-solutions initiative are mapped against it. The authors demonstrate the framework’s value as a tool for determining the relevance of cross-border obstacles and solution factors for the issue of cross-border commuting. The paper concludes that the EU b-solutions contributed with concrete policy actions as well as a body of knowledge and solution-orientated planning towards reducing a range of legal-administrative cross-border barriers in Europe, and therefore represents a set of lebenswelt interventions contributing to the potential for increasing cross-border commuting flows. info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion

Despite the positive contributions of several European Union (EU) policies to reduce border barriers, the EU Cross-Border Review (CBR) initiative reaffirmed their relevance and persistence. Since 2018, the EU has supported the b-solutions initiative, specifically focused on tackling legal and administrative border obstacles, aiming to highlight replicable solutions which can contribute to reducing these obstacles. This article critically assesses the b-solutions and its contribution to reducing administrative and legal border obstacles, with an eye to promoting a more integrated European territory. It is concluded that b-solutions is a valid, yet insufficient, initiative to provide replicable solutions to mitigate cross-border barriers. info:eu-repo/semantics/acceptedVersion