Bridging the European Union and Eastern Europe: Cross-border Cooperation and the Euroregions

Yoder, Jennifer A.

doi:10.1080/13597560308559436

Cited by 23 publications

(22 citation statements)

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“…In spite of the support for cross-cultural awareness, Anke Strü ver (2005) found that the majority of residents she interviewed in the GermanÁDutch euro-region were not conscious that they were living in a euro-region. In other studies, such as the findings in Jennifer Yoder's (2003) research in the Pro-Europa Viadrina euro-region, when residents were aware that their community was part of an euro-region they did not have much knowledge about what euro-regions do nor were they involved in euro-region sponsored projects. The responses of students in Szczecin were similar to the above findings, as over half were not aware of the city's membership in the Pomerania euro-region, nor were they able to define the term euro-region.…”

Section: The Students' Awareness Of Living In the Pomerania Euro-regionmentioning

confidence: 93%

The enduring importance of national identity in cooperative European Union Borderlands: Polish university students' perceptions on cross-border cooperation in the Pomerania euro-region

Brym

2011

National Identities

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European integration, through euro-regions, voluntary zones of cooperation across national borders, and the eastward expansion of the Schengen Zone have transformed Europe borderlands into sites of bi-national collaboration. This study evaluates how a group of Polish university students living in the Pomerania euro-region view the new ease of cross-border mobility and the types of crossborder activities they engage in. If the experience of students in the border city of Szczecin is reflective of other European borderlands, than cross-border cooperation has not diminished the importance of the border as a mental marker of nation-state boundaries or the importance of national identity.The ease of mobility across the PolishÁGerman Borderland and the cross-border cooperation in the region marks a new era of cooperation between these two European countries. In an age of European integration, interior borders between member countries are constructed as areas of transition and cooperation. The Schengen Accord, as of 2007, has nullified custom checkpoints at the border and removed physical barriers to mobility. In addition euro-regions, zones of crossborder interaction, are encouraging economic, political, and cultural integration among borderlanders by providing financial support for cross-border projects. Despite the new ease of cross-border mobility and financial incentives to develop cross-border networks, questions remain about the ability of the EU to contribute toward the erosion of mental borders supported by deep-rooted national identities.To learn more about individual attitudes toward the increasing openness and cooperation across the PolishÁGerman border, this article analyzes the attitudes toward cross-border integration held by a group of Polish university students studying in the northwestern Polish city of Szczecin. In-group interviews students were questioned about their cross-border mobility, their awareness of regional cross-border cooperation and their predications for future integration at the PolishÁGerman border. The interpretations of the responses from the students that participated in this study indicate that for this focus group, the PolishÁ German border is an easily traversed space yet an important marker of the division between two different nationalities. If the attitudes of this particular group of Polish students are similar to borderlanders in other parts of the EU, it suggests that *

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Section: The Students' Awareness Of Living In the Pomerania Euro-regionmentioning

confidence: 93%

The enduring importance of national identity in cooperative European Union Borderlands: Polish university students' perceptions on cross-border cooperation in the Pomerania euro-region

Brym

2011

National Identities

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“…This resulted in economic decline and led to the marginalization of many CEE border regions (Turnock 2002;Mezei 2004). In addition, the decades of isolation also indirectly reinforced existing fears and stereotypes towards ethnically different inhabitants living across the border (Yoder 2003). In spite of these factors, the number of Euroregions, understood as organizations rather than as territories, rose rapidly across CEE and now they are present everywhere along the state borders.…”

Section: Why Do Local Governments Join Euroregions and What Happens Amentioning

confidence: 97%

Diversity and Development: Policy Entrepreneurship of Euroregional Initiatives in Central and Eastern Europe

Medve-Bálint

Svensson²

2013

Journal of Borderlands Studies

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The article builds on the authors' research into the formation of Euroregions in Central and Eastern Europe, addressing questions that may also be relevant on a broader European scale. Based on our empirical findings, in previous research we demonstrated why some local governments join Euroregions while others abstain. This article takes a further step and aims to discuss what happens once local governments become involved in them. How do motivations and expectations of local governments, as well as the power asymmetries between them, determine the capacity of these small-scale local cross-border collaborative initiatives to act as policy entrepreneurs? We take the three different Euroregional initiatives present in the Komárom-Esztergom region at the Hungarian-Slovakian border as illustrative examples. The empirical data were collected through personal interviews with the representatives of the Euroregions and with the highest political representatives of all local governments that are members on the Hungarian side. We find that differences in membership structure and in the motivational background influence their capacity to act as policy entrepreneurs operationalized as organizational development, diversification of resource base and appropriation of cross-border cooperation activities. We thus rely on a modified version of Markus Perkmann's theoretical framework built around the concept of policy entrepreneurship, but apply it to cases where we are able to control for variations in underlying macro-level conditions, such as politico-administrative or ethno-linguistic settings. The paper, therefore, highlights the differences in the internal dynamics of these initiatives and also challenges the perception of Euroregions as homogeneous institutions.

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“…In practice, Euroregions often act as clearinghouses for various private and public organizations on both sides of the border. 27 Writing two years before the EU's historic eastern enlargement, another author described Euroregions as "providing a Europeanized framework that connects Europe and Not-Yet-Europe …(that) aim at inducing coordinated cross-border exchange and integration." 28 The emphasis on a Europeanized framework is noteworthy, as Europeanization suggests the employment of certain norms of behavior, policy channels, and funding sources.…”

Section: From Border To Boundary?mentioning

confidence: 99%

No Longer on the Periphery: German-Polish Cross-Border Relations in a New Institutional Context

Yoder¹

2008

German Politics and Society

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On 21 December 2007, the German-Polish border became a "Schengen" border. Passport controls and other limitations to the movement of people and goods were abolished, removing one more obstacle to European and, perhaps, German-Polish integration. Several years earlier, Poland introduced territorial and administrative changes that moved it closer institutionally to western European states. Forty-nine subnational administrative units were replaced by sixteen self-governing voivodships. This article explores the implications of this new institutional context for German-Polish border relations. It finds that, despite the expansion of the opportunity structure for greater German-Polish cross-border cooperation, interaction still tends to be among elites. The development of linkages at the societal level lags behind for several reasons, including lingering institutional impediments and cultural differences, but also the failings of political leadership.

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Bridging the European Union and Eastern Europe: Cross-border Cooperation and the Euroregions

Cited by 23 publications

References 1 publication

The enduring importance of national identity in cooperative European Union Borderlands: Polish university students' perceptions on cross-border cooperation in the Pomerania euro-region

The enduring importance of national identity in cooperative European Union Borderlands: Polish university students' perceptions on cross-border cooperation in the Pomerania euro-region

Diversity and Development: Policy Entrepreneurship of Euroregional Initiatives in Central and Eastern Europe

No Longer on the Periphery: German-Polish Cross-Border Relations in a New Institutional Context

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