INTRODUCTION TO SPECIAL ISSUE OF TRAMES “REGIONAL DEVELOPMENT CHALLENGES OF EU BORDER REGIONS IN THE CONTEXT OF THE INTERACTION BETWEEN THE EU AND COUNTRIES OF ITS IMMEDIATE NEIGHBOURHOOD”

Abstract

The land border between the EU and the countries covered by the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) has increased since 2004 from 1300 to 5100 kilometres. This border demands efficient management and security measures; but it is also characterised by the history of economic and cultural cross-border contacts that need to be preserved and developed further for the sake of cohesion. ENP aims to create a new cooperation framework for the EU and thus combines two sets of goals--external policy objectives to keep good neighbourly relations with countries located on EU borders and EU Regional Policy's quest for social and economic cohesion in the European peripheral regions in the context of enlargement. ENP also discusses the need for cooperation in the fields of security (e.g. migration and readmission agreements), although this is seemingly a lesser priority. Central to the EU enlargements and ENP has always been the notion of conditionality--a system of carrot and stick where soft and open borders constitute a reward for progress in meeting European standards. Well-behaving neighbours can count on better market opportunities in a more stable economic and political environment. As the EU's boundaries has shifted geographically, it is necessary to investigate the extent to which meaningful forms of conflict prevention, problem-solving and other forms of collective action are emerging in Central and Eastern European border regions. In what ways could cross-border regionalisation in these countries contribute to European multilevel governance? As enlargement presents a major political, economic and social challenge for the EU it has also far-reaching effects on the acceding countries (and their regions) which, while striving to adopt the acquis communautaire, have to deal with fundamental societal transformations and rapid structural change. In the course of several enlargement waves (e.g. Greece 1981, Austria, Sweden, Finland 1995, Big Bang 2004 with inclusion of Romania and Bulgaria in 2007) the EU has reached the borders of the Balkans, Turkey and Russia. It is mostly at the regional level where the manifold challenges posed by EU enlargement, including institutional adaptation, conflict prevention, as well as diversity of interests and heterogeneity, come together with magnified intensity. As such, border regions appear to be key elements in facilitating the European integration and enlargement process. They are seen as flexible vehicles for cross-border mobilisation of collective action in addressing social, economic and environmental issues. In cases where new borders have emerged or the old ones tightened, euroregions, economic partnerships, twin-city initiatives, cross-border urban networks and similar forms of interaction have also come into being. These cooperation patterns reflect the attempts to use border as a resource for economic and cultural exchange as well as for building coalitions for regional development purposes. The first cases of cross-border cooperation (CBC) within the European Community appeared already in the 1950s and since then CBC has developed into a variety of institutionalised forms. In the course of time and due to the continuous European enlargement process, similar activities attempting to transcend the barriers to trade and people-to-people contacts have emerged more intensively at the external borders. Nevertheless, it is important to emphasise that regions at the EU's eastern borders represent a considerable challenge to national development policies as well as to European cohesion. These regions are, by and large, peripheral areas, not only far from the dynamic European core but often distant from prosperous national centres. Many of them continue to suffer from out-migration, de-industrialisation, and negative demographic trends. In addition, neighbouring regions on the other side of the border are similarly disadvantaged, resulting in 'double peripheries' within a wider European context. …