The Role of EGTCs and Euroregions in Economic Cooperation Across the Hungarian-Romanian Border Between the Period 2007-2020

Abstract

Cross-border cooperation stands in the heart of the European Union as border regions are often regarded as the laboratories of the EU. This necessitates a proper understanding of the primary tools – the Euroregions and the EGTCs – used for supporting cross-border cooperation. This article focuses on the exploration of the roles these structures play in economic cross-border cooperation on the Hungarian-Romanian border section between 2007 and 2020 through analysing the available literature and conducting semi-structured interviews. The research shows that the Euroregions created in the 1990s and 2000s opened the way for the more institutionalised, legally more powerful tool of EGTCs while their abilities to be a direct driver of economic cross-border cooperation seems to somewhat diminished. At the same time the analysed EGTCs also struggle to fulfil the expectations attached to their capacity of improving cross-border economic development on the Hungarian-Romanian border section as their activities are either preparatory, sporadic or small-scaled.