Euroregions and Local and Regional Development—Local Perceptions of Cross-Border Cooperation and Euroregions Based on the Euroregion Beskydy

Abstract

The cross-border regions, which are the peripheral regions, are struggling with m troubles. They often include high unemployment, insufficiently developed infrastructure, or inadequate language skills of residents, which are barriers to exploiting the potential of such regions. One kind of remedy is the assumption of the European Union’s regional policy, under which Euroregions are created. These units, constituting a form of cooperation between the regions of the European Union member states, candidate countries, and the regions of their neighbors, with the support of local and regional authorities, constitute support for the competitiveness and development of border areas. The purpose of this study is to verify how people perceive the activity and effectiveness of Euroregions, as well as to try to determine whether they think Euroregions contribute to local and regional development. In this research, an online and self-administered survey was used, with two parts: one related to Euroregions in general, and the other to a specific, selected Euroregion. Despite the fact that the Polish experience has not been as long as in other parts of Europe, the results show that the Euroregions are positively evaluated by people, and they rate them as important for development of the regions.

Transport Infrastructure and Political Factors as Determinants of Tourism Development in the Cross-Border Region of Bihor and Maramureş. A Comparative Analysis

“…Subsequent works on cross-border tourism [20][21][22][23] focus on the political, social and economic aspects of the problem or its theoretical approach [24][25][26][27]. There is also a wealth of literature on cross-border cooperation, especially in the EU Euroregion [28][29][30][31] and at its external borders [16,17,32,33]. We also have a relatively large amount of research devoted directly or indirectly to tourism in Romania's cross-border regions.…”

Polarization of Living Standards among Administrative Units Engaged in Cross-Border Cooperation—The Example of Polish Municipalities of Euroregion Baltic

“…After an initial outpouring of research on the Euroregion Baltic (in the 1990s and the turn of the century which focused mainly on the social and political implications of its establishment [49][50][51][52][53][54][55][56] the interest gradually waned. As duly noted by Howaniec and Lis [8] (p. 5), the Euroregion Baltic is currently the least popular subject of works on Polish Euroregions. Given this decrease in economic research work, and keeping in mind the objectives set out in the Statute of the Association of Polish Communes Euroregion Baltic (improving living standards), the noted dearth of research work on the subject is all of the more striking.…”

“…Therefore, it is an informal designation, though commonly used in the literature on the subject [4] (p. 115), [5] (p. 192), [6] (p. 14), [7] (p. 269). In Polish documents, the "Euroregion" is described in reference to the Linkage Assistance and Cooperation for the European Border Regions (LACE), wherein it is considered to be a formal framework for cross-border cooperation that includes local/regional actors and, in many cases, economic and social partners [8]. Its organizational structure usually consists of an elected council, an executive board, thematic working groups and a secretariat [9].…”

Asymmetry of the economic development of cross-border areas in the European Union: assessment and typology

“…Finally, cross-border cooperation itself, referring to a network of more or less formalised and flexible cross-border links between different categories of actors, such as public institutions, non-governmental organisations, entrepreneurs, etc., should be considered an important factor determining the contemporary dynamics of cross-border development (Durand & Decoville, 2020). It fosters not only multifaceted strengthening of cross-border ties (Sousa, 2013), but also economic development of border areas (Basboga, 2020;Howaniec & Lis, 2020 This catalogue is of course not exhaustive. Each of the above factors, however, has a significant impact on the development of functional, and consequently institutionalised cross-border regions, increasing the regional growth potential of border areas (Klatt & Winkler, 2020).…”