Highlights from the BorderLabs CE Kick-Off Conference

Date: 25.11.2024

The event was hosted by CESCI (Central Euroepan Service for Cross-border Initiatives). The audience was welcomed by Mr Gyula Ocskay (Secretary General). Opening speeches were delivered by Ms Zsuzsanna Fejes (President of CESCI), who emphasised the role of cross-border cooperation in the Central European integration; Mr Karl-Heinz Lambertz (President of the Association of European Border Regions) stressing the need for innovative solutions to overcome border obstacles; Mr Gábor Mayer (State Secretary for Regional Development at the Ministry of Public Administration and Regional Development of Hungary) who offered partnership of the ministry to support territorial development interventions; and Mr Luca Ferrarese (Head of the Joint Secretariat of the Interreg Central Europe Programme), who framed BorderLabs CE as an important test-bed for transnational collaboration.

The first discussion panel, moderated by Ms Mónika Simon, started with presentation of the project by the lead partner Mr Peter Just (Saxon State Ministry for Regional Development) and Mr Martin Reents representing the Infrastruktur & Umwelt company providing professional consultancy for the lead partner. It was followed by the presentation of the pilot areas and the pilots of the project partners:

  •        Mr Pavel Branda (Project Manager of the Euroregion Nisa) and Mr Maciej Zathey (Director of the Institute for Territorial Development) presented Pilot 1 on integrated cross-border strategy development in the Three Country Area (CZ-PL-DE), and emphasised that one of the biggest challenges is changing the border-consciousness of the people living in the region. The development of a governance model is also part of the plans.
  •   Mr Sören Bollmann (Coordinator of the Frankfurt-Słubice Cooperation Centre) gave a presentation on Pilot 2 which is about participatory governance for transition management in cross-border twin-cities. They plan to realise twin-city dialogue forums to address the needs of cross-border communities and serve as a best practice example for other cross-border twin-cities in Europe.
  •        Ms Romina Kocina (Director of the EGTC GO) presented Pilot 3 on cross-border development of sustainable and slow tourism at the Italian-Slovenian border which will be implemented in the context of the Capital of European Culture project (2025) of the twin-cities.
  •        Ms Katja Rosner (Programme Coordinator, State Government of Upper Austria) addressed the facilitation of joint management of border obstacles connected to Pilot 4. Their aim is to identify legal objectives in the border areas with Bavaria an Czechia and introduce solutions to tackle these obstacles.
  •    Mr Péter Nagy (Director of Ister-Granum EGTC) provided a presentation of Pilot 5 on cross-border marketing and promotion of local products, aiming to support the development of a mechanism for cross-border sales and distribution of local/agricultural products as well as reduce the administrative and legal obstacles and facilitate the establishment of cross-border supply chains.

The second discussion panel of the event, moderated by Ms Melinda Istenes-Benczi, was dedicated to ideas towards a more integrated Europe. Frédéric Durand (LISER) focussed on border regions as the laboratories of integration and illustrated the complexity and ambiguities of cross-border spatial planning through different obstacles that limit cooperation, namely institutional, legal, technical, cultural, political, fiscal and relational ones.

Mr Martin Reents (INFRASTRUKTUR & UMWELT) gave a presentation on cross-border spatial planning initiatives between Germany and Poland  highlighting the strategic aim of a common vision of Poland and Germany to provide motivation and inspiration for intensified cooperation in the German and Polish border area.

Mr Gyula Ocskay (CESCI) who transferred the messages of Ricardo Ferreira (Border Focal Point, European Commission DG REGIO) being absent, on the activities that the Commission has been carrying out for the elimination of cross-border obstacles, and presented the evolution of the EU-level legal tool called FCBS.

Ms Kitti Dubniczki (CESCI) summarised the mission of the project when presenting the framework for a Central European Territorial Agenda. She emphasised that there are no “one size fits all” solutions, instead, a “place-based approach” and different development objectives tackling the cross-border obstacles are needed for a new tailor-made spatial vision in the region.