In the first part of the third workshop at the colloquium ‘Building bridges: towards territorial cohesion in Europe?’ on governance and networking of cross-border areas, chaired by Jean-Christophe Romer from the University of Strasbourg, Martin Heintel from the University of Vienna discusses cooperation between the bordering countries Austria, Hungary, Slovakia and the Czech Republic. Anaïs Marin from the University of Helsinki focuses on Euroregions with eastern borders, particularly looking at the question of cross-border water management. Julia Scharting from the University of Innsbruck continues the workshop by examining regional governance at the external borders of the European Union, taking the Alpine Rhine Valley as an example. Finally, Mariska van der Giessen from Radboud University Nijmegen presents her research on cross-border cooperation between Germany and the Netherlands.