Coordination and communication mechanisms

2.6.1 The bodies, organs and institutions to be involved in obstacle management Based on the above analyses, the following summary can be provided on the stakeholders and roles of a potential V4 level mechanism.

 Conference of Ministers of Foreign Affairs (V4 level body): active participation in the preparation and setting-up of the new mechanism, facilitating the national level commitment.

 The governmental institutions responsible for coordination of V4 level cooperation (the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Office of the Government in the Czechia, the Visegrad Cooperation and Central European Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade in Hungary, the European Policy Department of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the National Coordinator of the V4 Cooperation in Poland, the Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs and the Conference of Ministers of Foreign Affairs in Slovakia): active participation in the preparation and setting-up of the new mechanism and its administrative and financial background.

 The different Ministries of the four countries: participation in the shaping of the content of the legal solution, drafting of the legislative proposals / amendments of an existing law eliminating the identified obstacle, administration of law-making procedure, execution of the Parliament bill.

 The Ministries responsible for handling cross-border administrative obstacles and the adaptation of the ECBM Regulation (Czechia: Ministry of Regional Development, Hungary: Ministry of Foreign Affairs and Trade, Poland: Ministry of Investment and Development, Slovakia: Ministry of Foreign and European Affairs): coordination of the V4 level institutionalisation of the ECBM Regulation, setting-up of the CBCPs which may become the main factors of the obstacle management with coordination and monitoring competences.

 The legislation preparation and monitoring institutions of the four countries (the Government Legislative Council of the Czechia, the Intra-Parliamentary Committee of Hungary, Government Center for Legislation of Poland and the Legislative Council in Slovakia): legal harmonisation process of the new draft provisions, joint elaboration of the analysis, participation in the development of the annual plan and the report.

 Legislative bodies of the four countries (the Chamber of Deputies and the Senate of Czechia, the National Assembly of Hungary, the Sejm and the Senate of Poland, the

National Council of Slovakia): finalisation and adoption of legal provisions drafted by the relevant Ministries.

 Regional self-governmental bodies, cross-border structures (euroregions, EGTCs, cross-border institutions, partnerships, twin-cities, local people): identification of the obstacles and reporting of them to the CBCPs.

 Secretariat of the Visegrad Fund: participation in the setting-up of the new mechanism and provision of the administrative background for its operation; drafting of annual plans, coordination of the analyses, drafting of the annual reports together with the members of the Mobility Forum / Council, maintenance of the V4 level obstacle database.

In terms of coordination and communication, the following stakeholders have key position and role:

 local municipalities, regional municipalities, cross-border structures and institutions, local people living in borderlands (the stakeholder group affected the most, missing adequate legal, administrative and financial capacities for tackling the problems caused by the obstacles): identification of the obstacles, active involvement in obstacle management;

 consultative forum of the CBCPs, Mobility Forum, Mobility Council (according to the three different models): identification of the solutions, coordination and monitoring of the national level obstacle management;

 institutions responsible for legal harmonisation: analysis of the proposed solutions, coordination of the law-making process at national level;

 relevant Ministries: drafting of the legislative proposals, execution of the adopted bills.

Map 1: EGTCs and euroregions along the internal borders of V4 countries

2.6.2 Coordination and communication of the different models

Concerning the concrete coordination and communication measures, the three models represent different solutions.

Consultative model

In the case of the first model, the coordination and communication mechanisms do not require complicated frameworks since this solution is about consultation. The four CBCPs can communicate regularly or in an ad-hoc way linked to special topics occurred. It is recommended to launch an on-line platform collecting typical border obstacles and experiences with the ECBM tool. The experiences can be tabled to the actual Presidency to be discussed at V4 level.

The model of the Mobility Forum

In the case of the second model, the following work-phases can be differentiated: planning, analysis, proposal, amendments, monitoring.

The planning phase starts with the identification of the obstacles to be eliminated. Based on the information shared by the local stakeholders or other resources, the Secretariat prepares a long-list on the obstacles from among which the members of the Forum creates a short-long-list.

The analytical phase involves the legal experts and legal institutions of the four governments³⁰ and the Secretariat coordinating the analytical work. The main purpose of this phase is to unfold the legislative background of the potential amendments of national laws.

The national level proposals are drafted based on the results of the analysis. The Mobility Forum decides on the content of the amendment which has to be adapted to the different national contexts.

The proposal forms the basis for those new national legislations adopted by the national parliaments or decress drafted by the governments.

The Mobility Forum monitors the process and publishes the achivements and the shortages in an annual report. The Forum has no competences to adopt legally binding resolutions but it has the possibility to communicate with the member states on the reasons of missing amendments and if necessary, it can provide technical support.

The detailed procedures shall be similar to those drafted in the following subchapter.

The model of the Mobility Council

The third model requires the application of the most complicated procedures.

The main annual meeting point of the organs of the Visegrad Cooperation Council should be the so-called annual ordinary session, to be held in June, in the country holding the presidency of the Council. The sessions are the unique forums where politicians, the members of the Parliamentary Assembly discuss V4 issues with the Prime Ministers and other ministers. They all take part in the debates on the actual and relevent issues for V4 cooperation, but the right to vote and hereby to decide is restricted to the parliamentary members.

These sessions are also the forums where

 the ministers concerned with V4 cooperation give a report on their areas;

 the Council of Ministers of V4 cooperation submits the annual report on their last year’s activity including the topic of cross-border obstacle management; in addition an account of the plans for future cooperation;

 the Prime Ministers present their work programme on Visegrad intergovernmental cooperation for the upcoming year. The prime minister for the country which will hold

the presidency of the intergovernmental cooperation in the following year is responsible for this report.

Non-ordinary session may be held based on the agreements made during the ordinary sessions.

Official and regular meeting times of the particular organs of the Visegrad Cooperation Council:

 the Presidency meets once a year within the framework of V4 summits which shall be organized in the country holding the Presidency during the wintertime;

 the Parliamentary Assembly meets during the sessions at least on an annual basis;

 the Council of Ministers for Visegrad Cooperation shall meet on a 4 month basis in the light of the actual cooperation issues,

 the V4 Mobility Council shall coordinate and monitor the legal accessibility process through the meetings held maybe 5-6 times during a year.

Regarding the obstacle management process the following information and communication mechanisms should be established.

 The EGTCs and euroregions concerned with the task of collecting legal and administrative obstacles from the ground shall regularly report towards the Secretariat.

It would be practical to establish a short, standardised digital form where the obstacles occurred shall be described and submitted.

 As next step the dedicated staff of the Secretariat shall analyse the submitted obstacles and register them in a database in a manner ensuring all relevant details for the decision-making of the V4 Mobility Council. There is an already existing legislation database managed by the Government Legislation Center of Poland, which could be a useful and further developed platform for the establishment of the V4 legal harmonisation database providing the list and description of the already mapped obstacles and the current status of legislation procedure with all updates.

 Based on the database managed by the Secretariat, the V4 Mobility Council decides on the list of obstacles to be addressed and eliminated on an annual basis in line with the annual work programme of the Presidency and the action plan of the Council of Ministers of the Visegrad cooperation. Then the national members launch the legal harmonisation procedure by addressing and involving the concerned members of public administration systems. The way of communication during their work should be as flexible as possible. The V4 structure and their governments should provide them capacity and resources to establish ad-hoc intergovernmental task forces in order to find a solution for handling the particular obstacles.

 The national members of the V4 Mobility Council shall report on their activities during the official group meetings.

 At the end of each working year the V4 Mobility Council submits an annual report to the Council of Ministers for the V4 cooperation in order to present the results and the progress made during the given period of time.

All parts of the workflow, and the information and cooperation mechanisms related to the border obstacle management are going to be detailed and described in the ‘Information and cooperation Handbook’ to be published within the framework of the next project implementation phase.