This article analyses the process of spatial integration in ten European cross-border metropolitan regions by comparing three indicators, relating to flows of cross-border commuters, differentials of gross domestic product per capita and residents' citizenship. Our results allow, firstly, confirmation of the hypothesis that the greater the economic disparities, the greater the level of interactions measured by cross-border commuting. Our work also allows confirmation of the hypothesis that strong economic interactions have an impact on the cross-border integration of communities, measured by the proportion of residents based on the other side of the border. Finally, this article leads to a typology based on three models of cross-border integration being proposed: by specialization, by polarization and by osmosis.
Since its creation, the European Union seems to be guided by the idea that an increase in cross-border flows contributes to more European unity. Thus, emphasis has been placed for instance on lowering customs tariffs and encouraging the free movement of goods and people. However, if the opening up of borders creates new opportunities for some residents of border regions, there are others who may not benefit. For this reason, and in a context characterized by the rise of Euroscepticism, it seems crucial to take a more critical look at actual cross-border integration and to unravel its concrete consequences for the people who live in border regions. This paper aims to do so by focusing on two aspects of this process: the functional dimension, through the number of cross-border activities, and the perceptions border residents have of their neighbours, through the level of mutual social trust. The EUROBAROMETER 422 survey is used in order to produce statistical analyses and maps. This enables us to offer a new image of European cross-border integration and to draw the following conclusions. Firstly, cross-border flows are not uniform and vary greatly from one cross-border area to another. Secondly, cross-border regions in which the intensity of flows between neighbouring regions is high do not necessarily show a high level of mutual social trust between borderland populations. Thirdly, there is not always reciprocity with regard to the mutual social trust that people have towards their neighbours within cross-border areas.
Two major processes have increased the need for cross-border public transportation policies in European metropolitan regions in the recent past: the imperative of a region’s accessibility within the inter-urban competition and the aspired EU-wide regional harmonization and de-bordering process. Governing such multifaceted issues in cross-border regions requires the implementation of suitable and efficient organizational solutions. In the example of the cross-border metropolitan region of Luxembourg, we discuss the contradicting ‘border effects’ of a complex cross-border governance network. Such flexible policy networks are supposed to make the proclaimed economic, socio-cultural, and spatial European integration work on the very local level. We suggest that the governance typology of Liesbet Hooghe and Gary Marks offers a useful guiding heuristics for function-specific governance arrangements in cross-border regional contexts. We utilize a method mix of a quantitative social network analysis and a complementary qualitative survey to illuminate structural notions of the policy network relations to relate our empirical results to the conceptual debate on governance structures in the politically proclaimed de-bordering regions within the EU.
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