1999 - Finse, Depertment of Geography Univeristy of Bergen, Norway, July 3-7th

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Browsing 1999 - Finse, Depertment of Geography Univeristy of Bergen, Norway, July 3-7th by Author "Novotny, Gabor"

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    The institution of Euroregions: Prerequisite for success?
    (AESOP, 1999) Novotny, Gabor
    Hungary is in a special situation regarding cross-border co-operation . by having seven neighbouring countries, . by being so small that each of the - now planned - regions (7) are border regions, . by having significant Hungarian minority in almost every adjacent regions (this factor differentiate the situation from the one of Austria and on the other hand is a very important one since this makes the co-operation more sensitive). During the 1990s - according to this important role - each level of administration (Government, the formulating regions, counties, districts, municipalities) set clear objectives in their spatial development concepts regarding cross-border co-operation emphasising the ever popular connecting feature of borders. Under the socialist regime borders had a dividing, even isolating character, they were difficult to cross - in some cases regarded almost as forefronts - and in the centralised states permission from the capitals were needed even for the limited and occasional co-operation. At the beginning of the previous decade parallel to the political détente some promising processes had begun. These were however concentrated mostly on the Austrian border. The Austrian - Hungarian Spatial and Land-use Planning Committee, established in 1985 on governmental level played a significant role. One of the subcommittees, the Cross-border Co-operation Work-Group - where Burgenland, and the Hungarian Gyr-Moson-Sopron and Vas counties were represented on the highest level - served later as a basis for the Interreg-Phare CBC programmes (35 Million ECUs for the 1995/99 period on the Hungarian Phare CBC side), and the establishment (1998) of the West-Pannon Euroregion.