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SOME CONSIDERATIONS ON THE CONCEPT OF "CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION"
Cebotari Svetlana, Budurina-Goreacii Carolina, Moldova State University, Chisinau, Moldova
E-mail: svetlana.cebotari@mail.ru
Abstract. The cross-border collaboration phenomenon consists of establishing direct relations between regions and communities on both sides of state borders, on the basis of administrative subordination of local authorities, as defined in national law. It is no coincidence that there is a growing more interest on border areas, especially within Europe.
This article explores some notions regarding the phenomenon of "cross-border cooperation".
Key words: cross-border cooperation, state, border, local authorities, region,
area.
Introduction
The phenomenon of cross-border collaboration appeared in Europe, in close connection with the evolution of local autonomy and regionalization, especially within the Euroregions. Also the phenomenon of cross-border collaboration consists of establishing direct relations between regions and communities located on both sides of state borders, based on the administrative subordination of local authorities, as defined in national law. It is no coincidence that there is a growing interest in the problems of border areas, especially within Europe. This phenomenon is related to the progressive weakening of political demarcation lines and the planned disappearance of economic barriers. But above all, it includes, on in its own way, certain difficulties, limitations and constraints that need to be overcome in order to achieve European integration. In this respect, cross-border regions are in fact the revealer and the catalyst for the advancement of European construction.
The area of cross-border regions results from two findings: on the one hand, the border as a physical limit; on the other hand, the cross-border region as a territory of the new contractual links. The border is, above all, a physical limit often indicated by
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terminals that fix the territory of a nation-state. Thus, it indicates the field of applying the national sovereignty. It is also a key element of the national territory and of any "national system"[10, p. 232], including its various components or sub-systems.
Conceptual-theoretical identities of the phenomenon "cross-border cooperation"
The border highlights an essential function of nation-states. It refers to establishing an identical territorial base for the exercise of all systems and sub-systems that embody theoretically national sovereignty. Basically, they may be expressed by national education, national economy, national currency, national defense, police, justice, etc. We immediately realize that the limits of all nation-state systems and subsystems in the same space can only generate confrontations, imbalances or even conflicts in the regions crossed by a border. There are often systems that are opposed or ignored, because of the lack of bridges or sufficient contractual arrangements, at least until now. In this systemic perspective, the territory of the cross-border regions must be seen as a dense field of relations, aspects of socio-economic, political, cultural field. They can vary in size depending on cultural, economic, tax, education fields, etc. It is therefore of the greatest importance for border areas to generate "bridges", contractual links between different actors in the main areas of cross-border cooperation and their areas of competence. However, a new geopolitics of integration has marked Europe for 3- 4 decades [8]. That is why "the role of the border has (...) changed; from the barrier, it becomes little by little a meeting place between different realities that uncovers the possibility of complementarities beyond rigid conception of national sovereignty. Given this new situation, it would be desirable, that the central authorities should take the decision to leave the border regions a certain autonomy and especially to allow them to negotiate with the neighboring regions of the other states in several areas which are specific to them. Respecting the legal norms of each nation, there are many possibilities to introduce corrective actions to mitigate or even eliminate the border effect "[4].
Even if the term "border or cross-border region" has three aspects, the notion of space, for cross-border regions, refers to three classic dimensions that differentiate cross-border areas:
- in areas;
- in poles;
- in administrative or political units.
Once established what a border region is at a functional and/or political level, it should be added that this term is not the only one used to convey the cross-border area; in some monographs the term "border zone" is found. Sometimes it is difficult to distinguish the two terms that in some cases can be used in place of the other. However, in the text on Community law, the following definition of cross-border cooperation is given:
"The expression "border zone" was defined in Article 5 (5) of the Directive 69-
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69, which has been amended etc ... According to the article it delimits the region whose inhabitants are likely to benefit only from a reduced proportion of tax exemptions on turnover and indirect taxes levied on imports. Thus, "border zone" must be interpreted as referring to a circular area defined by a radius of 15 km whose center is located at the customs border crossing point" [5].
The globalized definition of the cross-border region is therefore opposed to the more partial definition of the border zone. The second term has s a narrowly aspect, being defined as a posteriori space which is based on selected criteria that do not cover all the constituent aspects of a certain region. It belongs rather to a sector of socioeconomic and cultural realities, with concerns of efficiency, effectiveness or even of facilitating the analysis of "small frontier traffic", for example.
Initially there was a wide variety of meanings for this term or a multitude of attempts to name these territorial structures of cross-border cooperation. We would try to synthesize some of the most suggestive and identifiable territorial definitions of these possible cross-border territorial systems [6, p.59], taking into account the wide range of philosophical beliefs in the last few years, the deepening and understanding mechanisms of creating, operating and expanding these trends of promoting cultural identities, economic stabilization and development, mainly in Central and Eastern Europe.
Cross-border cooperation is of course not limited to those mentioned above. The diversification of areas of action is also a consequence of the establishment status of the members of these cross-border cooperation structures. Thus, there can be added activities of interest to the border populations in the fields of social, health, education, waste management, water resources, environmental protection and conservation, management and space organization, tourism and recreation, transport, prevention and combating natural disasters . The conceptual fund is of course the same - to promote cross-border cooperation and to gradually remove the restrictions imposed by political borders.
Thus, "within the limits of geographical scope of cooperation, cross-border structures are commitments for cooperation between local or regional government structures along the border in line with the promotion of common interest and raising the standard of living for border populations". Synthesizing the above, we can appreciate that: cross-border collaboration is a voluntary association, by respecting national and international laws, of certain territorial-administrative structures of state entities of different levels. Cross-border collaboration focuses on eliminating territorial isolationism, creating a framework of cultural proximity or reconstruction of such assemblies and, last but not least, the establishment of economic development cores in order to achieve a balance between the center and the periphery and in a more advanced phase of functional territorial systems. As we have already mentioned, taking into account the dynamics of this process and the existence of some differences between the ways of implementation and the functionality of these Euroregions in the European political ensemble, we do not exclude the possibility, that in a relatively short term, the theoretically summarized and presented statement would become
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insufficient or too comprehensive in terms of practical applicability in different areas of Europe [9. p.127]. Cooperation, beyond its national borders, is, after specialists' studies, of several kinds:
- interregional cooperation: is cooperation between regional and local authorities, especially in single domains, and amongst some actors, with an emerging organization due to the short tradition;
- transnational cooperation: it refers to cooperation between countries, sometimes with the participation of regions, especially in certain areas - regional development - in connection with other wider, related areas where the organization is still under way; interrelation is organized only in few situations, but there are certain approaches that are taking place within the framework of international organizations
[3].
Cross-border cooperation will focus on cooperation within Euroregions as well as the participation of development regions in European structures and organizations that promote their economic and institutional development in order to achieve projects of common interest [11, p.14]. Although cross-border cooperation is not a new phenomenon, changes in international space have led to a remarkable increase in the number of such initiatives supported by Community programs.
The main objectives of the cross-border cooperation policy are:
- to expand bilateral relations with border regions, to promote the economic opening policy and to eliminate the bottlenecks in the flow of commodities and capital;
- to increase regional and international cooperation for solving problems that go beyond their borders in order to obtain economic and cultural effects;
- to use the benefits of free economic zones, industrial parks with status of free entrepreneurship areas and cross-border areas with customs and fiscal facilities in order to attract the advanced technologies and investments;
- to develop capacity building through continuous training of the human factor and to disseminate the international legislative experience [14].
The mechanism of cross-border cooperation under different forms works efficiently, its advantages being unquestionable, such as: boosting economic and trade relations between member states; fostering cultural, artistic and scientific exchanges, contacts between people and human collectives; increasing cooperation in the field of ecology; ensuring an effective and rapid system of communications and transport; developing cross-border relations in various fields [2].
Cross-border collaboration for the states of the world is in fact an asset, which brings a number of advantages and disadvantages. It follows a perspective, which reveals almost a new world, another kind of politics acquired within the states. The philosophy of cross-border cooperation is based on the existence of mutual cooperation between two or several neighboring border regions, which presumes cooperation in all areas of daily life, the development of joint programs, priorities and actions, as well as the wider participation of various administrative levels, social groups, etc.
The development of successful cross-border cooperation requires a vertical and
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horizontal partnership with broad area, subsidiarity, the development of concepts, joint programs and projects of development and their implementation. European experience shows that border regions are the main subjects of cross-border cooperation, irrespective of their heterogeneity. Several types of border regions are known, each of them having established key and specific features, priorities of cooperation. And integration within a certain type of border region ensures that they are eligible to participate in EU specific programs support for cross-border cooperation.
The cross-border concept was until recently a category of socio-political practice, and this somewhat unfortunate situation was generated by at least two causes. On the one hand, the cross-border nature - for example, of an initiative or action - has been so strongly anchored in opportunities, in the momentary possibilities of political practice. Thus it has not even been questioned that the scientific analysis of this concept apart from exploiting the chances, the contingent and evanescence possibilities, could bring significant strategic benefits. On the other hand, the border was merely an auxiliary notion having an absolutely marginal role in defining the entities studied in social sciences, or in other words within the paradigm that served to defining the subject of social sciences.
In the opinion of Borocz Jozsef, at the center of social sciences, there was placed "a disturbing theoretically vague ghost and empirically unverified. It is the ghost of a society which is defined in terms of analogy with the human being -autonomous, capable of rational action based on his own interest, as well of self-reflection and, furthermore, determined exclusively by its internal relations - but ultimately extremely solitary". Because international migration, the system of relations from geopolitics and security-defense, the global markets, as well as the central-periphery fluctuations also prove that the political boundaries, which until recently they have imprinted on the border the concept a legal-administrative formalism, have become "a place" of very different but also complicated dynamics. By the nature of the situation to which it relates, the issue of cross-border cooperation is a process with many actors. In the analysis, we have set three levels of action, and at each level we have identified important actors and problem themes (issues). The three levels are: that of the European Union, - the community processes; the national level, - the countries concerned and its institutions; the regional/local level, concerned with related institutions and actors. Even if we accept the idea of the separate existence of the two levels, in this case we refer to two counties and the localities on their territory - so there is no reason to treat them separately [12].
Cross-border relations have progressed in several areas, for example on information exchange, increased levels of trade, the formation of new areas of major importance for both bilateral and multilateral interests. Every cross-border region is made up of a space, a certain number of human collectivities, and the specific network of relations linking these communities and this space, but which are disturbed or even in opposition because of the border [7]. As a reality the phenomenon of cross-border co-operation was studied by the Council of Europe in terms of importance and has been analyzed by the European Union authorities in terms of its role. Thus, the
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European Parliament, calling on the Commission to favor this type of cooperation, notes that "the consolidation of cross-border cooperation is a true cornerstone of the political will of the Member States to make a truly united Europe". The European Parliament recognizes the importance of joint operations between local communities from close or distant countries for the development of the Single Market. This seems obviously logical; on the other hand, it does not seem possible to abolish borders if there are fragile areas with special problems that are not homogeneous with the rest of Europe. The abolition of political borders, in the eyes of the European Parliament, will not solve all the problems related to this particular situation. The Parliament is continuing its work by inviting the Commission to "make proposals for directives obliging Member States to take the necessary measures to exchange information and to carry out in the border areas a mutual consultation on national measures having direct or indirect effects on the border regions of neighboring countries "[1].
According to our opinion on cross-border relations between the territorial communities of a country in the European Union and those of a non-member country, we can emphasize that "the Parliament is aware of the difficulties faced by border regions located on the outskirts of the Community but estimates that the nature of the problems and the solutions to be found do not allow them to be assimilated to the category of border regions within the Community".
Conclusions
In the following context, a definitive conclusion can be formulated so that cross-border cooperation is seen as a close co-operation of regional and local authorities along a border in all areas of life, with the participation of all actors, organized because there is a long tradition. The reason for the desire to cooperate concerns the desire to improve the standard of living, to ensure a lasting peace, and to remove the border barriers, resistances and other factors that have led to the separation of individuals and institutions from neighboring border regions. This includes overcoming natural boundaries by building bridges and tunnels. It seeks to identify ways of reducing regional disparities and ways to enhance economic cooperation between regions in order to build homogeneous states [13]. It is attempted to integrate cross-border cooperation in the spatial planning policy in the European Union by solving the border problems, the integration of the main infrastructure, the social and fiscal status of the active labor force at the border and cultural cooperation.
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