Abstract
Researching the Autonomous Province of Vojvodina as a region of Serbia and an European Union (EU) border region, we have long been concerned with the raison d’être of cross-border programmes, their impact, sustainability and long-term results. Against that background, the current study is focused on the results of the 2014-2020 cycle. The region of Vojvodina has neighbouring external borders with three EU Member States. While the partner countries have already applied for almost 100% of the available amounts, the implementation of projects and thus the payment of grants is only 50% effected so far. Our intention has been to examine the Vojvodina region in terms of cross-border programmes based on already completed projects and running along the lines of different Priorities. The Programme Areas of the four (Hungarian-Serbian, Croatian-Serbian, Romanian-Serbian and Serbia-Bosnia and Hercegovina) Cross-border cooperation programmes do overlap significantly. Primarily, we have been researching the territorial distribution of each, by reference to the locations of project owners and of project activities; as well as the related networking character of the projects implemented in Vojvodina in the Interreg-IPA (Instrument for Pre-accession Assistance) 2014-2020 programming period. It is then in this context that we examine the focal and connection points of the cross-border connections, in this way potentially indicating deficiencies in regard to sustainable project implementation. Without claiming to be exhaustive, we have also sought to reference impeding circumstances relating to a barrier effect that is obviously of particular importance given the fact that external borders of the EU are involved.
Highlights
Following the changes of regime in the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs), and the opening-up of Europe’s eastern borders, there has been a raising of the importance of developing border regions and of cooperation with external border regions
Following the changes of regime in the CEECs, as well as the 2004-2013 European Union (EU) accessions, there have been some modifications to the cross-border cooperation (CBC) engaged in by border regions in the states of the Western Balkans, since it is those that are reached by the EU’s external border
10% of the budget allocated to Serbia could be used for the CBC, which supported the building of relations with Hungary, Romania, Croatia, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Bulgaria, Montenegro, and, from 2014, Northern Macedonia; as well as the development of laggardly border regions
Summary
Following the changes of regime in the Central and Eastern European countries (CEECs), and the opening-up of Europe’s eastern borders, there has been a raising of the importance of developing border regions and of cooperation with external border regions. Cooperation within the EU and at the Union’s external borders aims to address issues extending beyond the borders of individual communities, with these including attempts at the exploitation of border situations, with borders serving economic and cultural exchange, and with regional links being built with a view to the achievement at regional level of development goals relating to the promotion of economic development, social affairs, the rights of minorities, cross-border employment, the boosting of trade relations, environmental problems, and so on (Perkmann, 2003; Popescu, 2008; Scott, 2015; Nagy, 2020) None of these goals of development are achievable where CBC processes are not effective (Medeiros, 2018). In this connection, Tamminen (2012) explains that the level of cooperation arising in border regions should no longer be controlled by the state(s), but rather involve local actors – at their initiation, with effects being seen, not as classic external relations, but rather as ‘neighbourly relations’
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