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Home News & Stories A taste of cooperation: Türkiye joins the Interreg Bake Off challenge
A group of fifteen people, both men and women, stand around a table with a cake in an office setting. Most are smiling and dressed in business casual attire. Banners and a clock are visible in the background.
News 10 October 2025

A taste of cooperation: Türkiye joins the Interreg Bake Off challenge

To mark 35 years of Interreg, the Bake Off Challenge has turned kitchens into symbols of cooperation. Türkiye, part of this European journey for 22 years, joined the celebration with a cake that embodies unity and teamwork. Through this initiative, the country highlighted how cross-border and transnational collaboration can be as meaningful as it is creative.
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This year, Interreg is marking its 35th anniversary with a different kind of activity: the Interreg Bake Off Challenge. The initiative invited programmes and projects to show cooperation in an unexpected setting - the kitchen. Baking became a way to illustrate how people can work together, not only across institutions but also across cultures and borders.

A group of fifteen people, both men and women, stand around a table with a cake in an office setting. Most are smiling and dressed in business casual attire. Banners and a clock are visible in the background. Representatives of Türkiye’s Directorate for EU Affairs participating in the Interreg Bake Off Challenge

Türkiye has been part of Interreg for more than two decades, and this year it took part in the challenge through its Directorate for EU Affairs. As National Authority for the Interreg NEXT Mediterranean Basin, the Interreg NEXT Black Sea Basin, and the Interreg IPA Bulgaria-Türkiye Programme, the country presented a cake that symbolised its role in fostering links with neighbouring regions.

 

Although playful in nature, the Bake Off Challenge points to something essential: cooperation is not only about policy frameworks, it is also about building trust, learning to work with others and creating space for shared experiences. For Interreg, these 35 years have been an opportunity to support joint projects, but also to show that collaboration can take many forms, even something as simple as baking together.