New Cross-Border initiative presented to EU Commission

Representatives of the Barents Cooperation will on Thursday present a new pan-European initiative on cross-border cooperation to EU Commissioner on Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy Stefan Füle.

Published on 10.03.2010

Berlaymont Building, EU commissionIn a rare meeting between Norwegian regional officials and the EU Commission, Rune Rafaelsen from the Norwegian Barents Secretariat and Pia Svensgaard, chair of the Barents Regional Council, will tomorrow discuss the initiative with Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy, Stephan Füle.

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Stefan Füle, EU Commissioner on Enlargement and European Neighborhood Policy

Mr. Rafaelsen and the Barents Secretariat is one of the driving forces behind the new initiative on cross-border cooperation, now being formalized in the project "European Border Dialogues - Promoting CBC in a wider Europe."

- A key objective for the initiative is to facilitate regional development across East-West borders in Europe, and first of all in the borderlands between the EU/EEA countries and their eastern neighbors. That will be made by establishing contact and cooperation mechanisms between the involved organizations, Rafaelsen says to BarentsObserver.

- Joint events, exchange of information and best practices, as well as capacity building and research is our main focus, Rafaelsen adds.

The project startup comes at a time with enhanced focus on cross-border cooperation in Europe. Instrumental in that regard is the EU's stress on the European Neighborhood Policy Instrument (ENPI), which will help channel significant sums of project money into cross-border initiatives with neighboring countries.

- Many of the challenges in these borderlands, from the Barents Region to the Caucasus, are similar and related. Border regimes hamper regional development and cooperation, and this first of all affects local people. Troublesome cross-border movement hinder economic and cultural interaction between the EU and its Eastern neighborhoods, the secretariat leader underlines.

The working group of the European Border Dialogues project is now headed by Vazil Hudak, Board Leader of the Prague-based Institute of Stability and Development. Other participating organizations are the International Centre for Democratic Transition, the Carpathian Foundation, the Ukrainian Institute of Cross-border Cooperation, the Jefferson Institute, the Kaliningrad Regional Economic Development Agency, the Belgrade Fund for Political Excellence and the Barents Institute