In the second part of the first workshop at the colloquium ‘Building bridges: towards territorial cohesion in Europe?’ chaired by Laurence Badel from the University of Strasbourg, Sabine Dullin from the University of Paris 1 describes neighbourhood practices and agreements in Eastern Europe in the 1920s. Elzbieta Opilowska from the Willy Brandt Centre and the University of Wroclaw then discusses the quest for a common European identity in the towns of Görlitz and Zgorzelec. Tibor Tõkés and Istvan Süili-Zakar from the University of Debrecen look at the links between cross-border cooperation and the mobility of workers at the European Union’s eastern border. Finally, Rosé Marie Quintana from the University of Perpignan Via Domitia analyses the legal aspects of cross-border cooperation with respect to worker mobility.