The paper analyzes Nordic participation in the cross-border cooperation project "b-solutions initiative", comparing it with the pre-existing obstacle-focused method for solving obstacles standing in the way of cross-border regional integration and mobility. The paper emphazes the novelty of the Nordic approach of working systematically with issues as "obstacles", something which then spread to European actors. The project b-solutions took the systematisation further and the method has returned to the Nordic countries with a twist and additional resources. However, Nordic actors still remain underrepresented in the overall pool.