1. Ассоциация Европейских Приграничных Регионов (АЕПР)
Európai Határ Menti Régiók Szövetsége (EHMRS)
1
Associació de les Regions Frontereres Europees (ARFE)
2. Black Sea Economic Forum
Yalta (Crimea)
4-5 October 2012
CBC on Tourism:
A sustainable approach to
development
The Association of European Border Regions
(AEBR – AGEG – ARFE)
3. CBC is a story of
Multi-Level Governance and
assymetries
• 50+ years of “formal” CBC; centuries of
“informal” and “abnormal” CBC
• Laboratories for European Integration
• Central Europe (Rhine basin), Northern
Europe, Mediterranean regions, Eastern
Europe and far beyond (Caucasus), …
• Global CBC for Global Challenges: Latin
America and Africa
8. European experience
shows:
• Supranational integration processes does
not guarantee cohesion in very diverse
territories. Their own dynamics strengthen
more developed areas (territorial
dumping).
• There is a need of a “positive
discrimination”: territorial cooperation
programmes and projects (Interreg) to
enhance economic, social and territorial
cohesion.
9. Diversity
from being an obstacle to create
opportunities
Various:
• Cultures and social systems
• Administrative structures and powers
• Fiscal and social legislations
• Many other political activities
… meet at the borders
• Citizens have grown up in very different
environments
• They will not sacrifice aspects of everyday lives
for the European ideal
• No State will alter its tried and trusted structures
10. Objective: Critical Mass
• CB regions cover half of their potential areas
of influence
• CBC makes easier to achieve a critical mass:
synergies, efficiency, joint planning and
managing
• Creation of CB influence areas
• Creation of alliances for joint sustainable
benefits
11. CBC Added Value
• (Pan-) European
(Continental)
• Political
• Institutional
• Socio-economic
• Socio-cultural
12. Socio-economic added value
• Mobilisation of endogenous potential
• Participation of economic and social
actors
• Opening up of labour market
• Additional development
• Lasting improvements in Spatial
Development
• Improvement of transport infrastructure
13. Socio-cultural added value
• Dissemination of knowledge
• Overview of CB region in maps,
publications, teaching material, …
• Circle of committed experts
• Equal opportunities and extensive
knowledge of the languages
14. Specific added value to
implement EU 2020
• Additionallity
• Synergy
• Joint Research and Innovation
• Networking
• Benchmarking
• Spin-off effects
• CB resource management
15. Evidences of CBC specific
added value to implement
European strategies (I)
Creation of CB infrastructures (also
maritime) as physical precondition for
CBC to create growth and employment:
• Spain/France,
• Sweden/Finland/Norway,
• Alpine area,
• external borders of the EU,
• etc.
16. Evidences of CBC specific
added value to implement
European strategies (II)
Further promotion of growth and
economic development in addition to
national development
• CB area Ireland / Northern Ireland;
• Germany / Belgium / Netherlands (new jobs);
• Spanish / Portuguese (risk capital fund);
• Bulgaria and Romania (CB business card).
17. Evidences of CBC specific
added value to implement
European strategies (III)
New CB business relationships between
producers and suppliers
• Network of the Chambers of Commerce in
Northern Greece / Bulgaria;
• Czech Republic / Germany (Saxony);
• German / Danish border;
• French / German border along the Upper Rhine;
• Hungarian / Austrian border.
18. Evidences of CBC specific
added value to implement
European strategies (IV)
New cooperation and sales opportunities
for Small and Medium-sized Enterprises
(SMEs)
Operational within a radius of 200 km,
extending to the neighbouring border region:
• Northern Greece: entrepreneurship centre for
the Balkan and the Black Sea states;
• Finnish / Norwegian / Swedish border: the Arctic
Investors Network;
• Spanish / Portuguese border: forum of
entrepreneurs.
19. Evidences of CBC specific
added value to implement
European strategies (V)
Establishment and improvement of CB
public transport links (buses, railways) for
the benefit of citizens, commuters and tourists
• Austrian / German border close to Salzburg
• Triangle Germany (Bavaria/Saxony) / Czech
Republic: CB public transport system including
throughout tariffs;
• Swedish/Danish border: common public
transport across the Oresund Bridge
20. Evidences of CBC specific
added value to implement
European strategies (VI)
CB tourism concepts and projects :
• Lake of Constance (Bodensee)
• Germany (Bavaria) / Austria
• Poland/Lithuania: joint touristic Service Centre
• Galicia / Norte: touristic map for Spanish/Portuguese
area
• Tatra (Poland/Slovakia) (Carpathians)
• Joint touristic marketing and promotion in
Ireland/Northern Ireland and the Pyrenees (FR/ES)
• Joint touristic strategies for Kent (GB) and North-Pas-de-
Callais (FR)
21. Evidences of CBC specific
added value to implement
European strategies (VII)
Greater catchments area
for business activities and services
…as research facilities and universities, waste disposal,
recycling and infrastructure facilities
They would not reach a critical mass, or not even be
available at all in border regions, if there were no CBC
• Joint Research Institute for New Rehabilitation
Techniques
• Centre for Microscope and Spectroscope Analyses (both
in EUREGIO, DE / NL border)
• Cooperation network of universities in Oresund, (DK /
DE) and in the CB region South Tyrol / Tyrol (IT / AU)
22. Evidences of CBC specific
added value to implement
European strategies (VIII)
Additional synergies and spin-off effects
Cooperation of universities, colleges of further
education and other educational institutions
• Cooperation of universities Strasbourg, Basel,
Freiburg in the Upper Rhine region
• In Lorraine/Saarland
• In Friuli-Venezia Giulia with their neighbours
in Slovenia and Austria)
23. Evidences of CBC specific
added value to implement
European strategies (IX)
Sustainable CB management of the
environment and environmental
protection
• Extremadura / Castilla y León /Portugal
• The Pyrenees
• Germany (Bavaria) /Austria
• Austria / Czech Republic
• Poland / Ukraine / Belarus
• Baltic States / Russia / Belarus
24. Evidences of CBC specific
added value to implement
European strategies (X)
CBC as model for "new governance“
• Everyday and everywhere in Europe
• Through Euroregions and similar structures
• They practice subsidiarity, partnership,
networking, benchmarking, neighbourhood, etc.
• … in spite of different languages, structures,
competencies and laws on both sides of the
border
25. Conclusions I
After 2013 :
• New opportunities for genuine CBC. 5th cohesion Report
recommends to continue (and increase) Territorial Cooperation, in
particular CBC.
• Treaty of Lisbon also recommends a special attention to CB
regions.
• The European Parliament has recommended that TC receives 7%
of Cohesion Fund (Sánchez Schmid’s report, Pieper’s report)
(but latest news: € 5,5 B cut on Cohesion Policy, strong
reaction)
• Extension of CBC outside the EU borders:
- European Eastern Partnership, ENP, and far beyond
(Caucasus)
- Processes in the Mediterranean basin, the Americas, Africa
and Asia
26. Conclusions II
• New challenges for CB structures :
- promoting “hot” issues (R&D, reconversion, labour market,
CB healthcare, …).
- Old wine in new bottles? The risk of “dying of fashion”:
euroregions, EGTCs, macroregions (Black cat, white cat,
…)
- The EU legal instrument EGTC has to be improved by
learning from lessons up to now
• And also for Networks! (AEBR, MOT, NEEBOR, Baltic, Black
Sea, Mediterranean, …) (Benedetti: old answers for new
questions?)
• More exigences for local and regional levels: pre-condition
for successful CBC (and more social participation). Political will
and participation .
• The States involved should also promote CBC (with their own
budgets) in new functional spaces .
27. Association of European Border Regions
Enscheder Strasse, 362
D-48599 Gronau (Germany)
Phone: +49-2562-70219 – Fax: +49-2562-70259
THANK YOU VERY MUCH FOR YOUR
ATTENTION
Photo: Kazimierz Branny, Czech-Polish border, 8th July 2006
info@aebr.eu