CROSS BORDER STRUCTURES IN EUROPE AND THE BALTICS

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CROSS BORDER STRUCTURES IN EUROPE AND THE BALTICS

• arunas Radvilavicius
• Nordic Council of Ministers Office in Lithuania
• CBC Summer School, Värska, 23 August 2005

2
CBC IN EUROPE -BACKGROUND

• Why CBC?
• Political function peaceful neighborhood
• Practical function Solution of specific problems
  of border regions (peripheral status, border as
  obstacle for development, divided communities
  etc.)

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CONCEPTS OF CBC (1)

• EU (territorial cooperation)
• Cross-border cooperation co-operation at
  regional and local level between territories
  which are situated close to the national borders
• Trans-regional cooperation implying co-operation
  between regions, which do not necessarily have to
  be placed in contiguous territories
• Trans-national cooperation implying co-operation
  between national states which may or may not have
  a common border

4
CONCEPTS OF CBC (2)

• Council of Europe
• transfrontier co-operation
• co-operation with neighbouring authorities
• interterritorial co-operation
• co-operation with foreign non-neighbouring
  authorities.
• R
• Cross-border cooperation
• - co-operation of local and regional authorities
  situated directly at the border, or close to it,
  in a wide spectrum of different sectors.

5
FORMS OF CBC

• Separate projects
• Town-twinning
• NGOs
• Euroregions

6
DEFINITION OF EUROREGION

• Cooperation on local/regional level
• Formalized political cooperation (agreement)
• Permanent joint structures (Council, Board,
  Secretariat etc.)
• Broad field of collective actions
• Cross-border oriented activities.

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HISTORY

• First euroregion in 1958 - EUREGIO
  (Germany-Netherlands)
• Nordic border committees in 1960-70.
• Association of European Border Regions (1971)
  about 180 members.
• 1980 Madrid convention of the Council of
  Europe
• EU and CBC cohesion policy/regional policy and
  neighbourhood policy.
• EU financial instruments
• 1989 PHARE
• 1990 INTERREG
• 1996 TACIS.

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CBC IN CENTRAL-EASTERN EUROPE

• Fall of Iron Curtain new countries new
  borders
• First euroregion Nisa in 1991 (Chech,
  Poland-Germany)
• First in the Baltics Euroregion Neman in 1997.
• Specific features of CBC in this region
• Unsolved political problems
• Distrust and stereotypes
• Many different kinds of borders
• Strict border regimes

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DIFFERENT FOCUS

• Euroregions in Western Europe, Nordic countries
• Strategic level
• tool for socio-economic development of the
  region
• services for community
• Euroregions in Central and Eastern Europe
• Project level
• fancy name as umbrella for projects
• politically loaded

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• 1. Euregio Karelia (FIN, RUS)
• 2. Finnish Estonian co-operation 33 (??, FIN)
• 3. Peipsi Center for Transboundary Cooperation
  (EE, RUS)
• 4. Helsinki-Talllinn Euregio
• (EE, FIN)
• 5. Euregio Pskov-Livonia (EE, LV, RUS)
• 6. Euroregion Bartuva (LV, LT)
• 7. Euroregion Country of Lakes
• (LV, LT, BY)
• 8. Euroregion Saule (LV, LT, RUS)
• 9. Euroregion Neman
• (LT, RUS, PL, BY)
• 10. Euroregion eupe (LT, PL, RUS)
• 11. Euroregion Baltic
• (LV, LT, RUS, SE, DK, PL)
• 12. B7 Islands (EE, FIN, DK, SE, DE)

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MAIN FEATURES AND CHALLENGES

• Territory and membership
• Legal status
• Administrative structures
• Council
• Board
• Secretariat
• Working groups
• Financing
• Stability
• Added value of CBC.

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NORDIC COUNCIL OF MINISTERS AND CBC

• Nordic Council of Ministers (established in
  1971) cooperation between five Nordic
  governments
• From 1991 offices in Riga, Tallinn, Vilnius, from
  1995 in St. Petersburg
• From 2002 project Cross border cooperation in
  the Baltic countries and North-West Russia
• From August 2005 BEN.

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Baltic Euroregional Network (BEN)

• Lead Partner Nordic Council of Ministers Office
  in Lithuania
• Partners 35 partners from 9 countries
• Financing BSR INTERREG III B NP
• Objective Strengthening of Euroregions as
  competent partners in spatial development of the
  BSR through building a network of Euroregions
• Budget 1.2 mln. Euro (plus 200.000 euro for
  activities in Russia and Belarus)
• Activities 4 work packages.
• Starting conference 27 September in Vilnius.
• www.benproject.org

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ARUNAS RADVILAVICIUS

• Nordic Council of Ministers office in Lithuania
• Didioji g. 5, LT-01128, Vilnius, Lithuaniatel.
  370 5 2123697
• mobile [phone]fax 370 5
  2122423e-mail sarunas_at_norden.lt
• http//www.norden.lt/