The Italy-Croatia cooperation area shows a distinct blue and green pattern, featuring the sea basin, coastal landscapes, green but also urban areas. The location of the Adriatic Sea in the very centre of the territory – although shared with other Countries – on one hand, requires more efforts to accomplish collaboration aims related with the cross-border integration of economic, educational and labour markets. On the other hand, it is a joint economic and environmental asset and a natural platform for cooperation building on long-dating trade exchange contacts reflected in some common traits of cultural heritage.
The whole Programme area, which  comprises parts of the territory of Italy and Croatia, spreads over 85.562 km2 and, according to the last census (2011),  its population is 12.465.861 inhabitants. In total, the cross-border cooperation area is made up of 33 statistical NUTS III territories (25 provinces in Italy and 8 counties in Croatia).