• Nem Talált Eredményt

Euroregions in Western Europe

In document andCENTRAL EUROPE (Pldal 46-49)

The post-World War Two Western European integration process got underway with the formation of the Common Market (1957). Soon the euroregions - as a regional manifestation of that process, as the territorial-spatial form o f integration - entered the scene. The prototype and European model of euroregions was the Regio Basiliensis, active to this day, which was formed in

February 1963, on the basis of the Swiss law of association, and which, as a groundbreaking enterprise, might be worth discussing in some detail.

The euroregion is located in the Upper Rhineland, in the area of the German-French-Swiss triple frontier - Feiburg, Colmar, and Basel. This area once formed a single coherent cultural unit. This is attested even today by the similar structure of settlements, the near-identical customs, the similar foods and beverages, and, last but not least, by the characteristic Alemannic dialect.

It was Basel, a city squeezed between the French border and the Rhine, that first championed the idea of building transfrontier relations. Back in 1963, the concept of transfrontier cooperation was, as yet, translated into practice only at the territorial level, with the foundation of the Regio Basiliensis association.

The French answered the Swiss initiative, in 1965, by calling into existence, in Mülhausen, the Regio de Haut-Rhin; while, on the German side, the Regio Society was formed in Freiburg. The trilateral cooperation means , beyond day- to-day contacts - employment, shopping, tourism etc. - the holding of regular joint conferences and symposiums, the cooperation of official agencies, the setting up of professional committees, and the operation of a regional radio station. (Radio Dreyeckland, which started out in 1977 as a private radio station, has had a daily output of sixteen hours since 1988, running programmes in French and German, and in the Alemannic dialect. Broadcasting from Freiburg, it provides residents of the area with information of public interest.) Later, the transport system and, subsequently, the entire regional development system were coordinated, and an integrated higher education system was put into place. To safeguard the accomplishments of the cooperation, a trilateral inter­

governmental agreement was concluded. Based on all this, it can justly be claimed that the Upper Rhineland cooperation is one of the most fruitful cooperation projects between countries in Europe, and could therefore serve as a model for other frontier regions and states as well. It is no accident that, in their joint statement of late 1990, the German, French, and Swiss government leaders

described this cooperation scheme as “exemplary”.

Following the example of the Regio Basiliensis, several euroregions were formed on the German-French and the German-Dutch borders.

In Western Europe, the heaviest concentrations of euroregions are located in the area of the Belgian-Dutch-Luxembourg-French-German frontier regions.

In this area - in the region bounded by the Maas, the Rhine, and the North Sea - there are currently seven euroregions operating.

Of these, we will have a closer look at the Maas-Rhine region, as a kind of exponent of the Western European model.

The Maas-Rhine Euroregion was officially formed in March 1991, as a foundation registered in accordance with the Dutch law of association - although, in practice, it had been operating since 1976. The region includes five

regions of three countries: Limburg and Liége Provinces, in Belgium; the southern portion of Limbourg Province, in Holland; the district of Aachen; and, as the fifth component, the German community of Belgium inhabiting the environs of Liége, who joined the euroregion later, in June 1992, as a separate legal entity.

Population and territorial structure of the Euregion Meuse-Rhin

Country Region, Population

province (person)

Belgium Limburg 761.593

Liége 942.897

Liége* 68.471

Netherlands Limbourg 793.331

Germany Aachen 1.200.921

total 3.767.213

* German population in Belgium

Source: G. Pire: The Euroregio Meuse-Rhin.

This is the proper place to mention that - even though, officially, the oldest euroregion is the Regio Basiliensis, mentioned earlier on - real transfrontier cooperation (of the sort that rendered national boundaries all but irrelevant) began in the catchment basin of the Rhine, in the Dutch-German border area, in 1957-58.

This Euregio, so called, encompasses Northern Rhine- Westphalia and Lower Saxony, and certain sectors of three Dutch provinces - i.e. Drenthe, Gelderland, and Overijssel.The formal community of the Euregio was formed in April 1978. It has, since then, evolved into a model of an integrated regional labour market - a process especially marked after 1987, when a new concept of regional development was prepared (9). (In Europe today, there are, in all, ten regions where there exists transffontier cooperation between the national labour organisations; these are the so- called EURES regions, of which the Euregio is one.) (10)

Coming back to the Maas-Rhine Euroregion, it quite clearly occupies a central position in Northwestern Europe. It lies along the most important transport and shipping routes, in both railway and road traffic, air and maritime traffic.

Building on the highly developed infrastructure, it represents a powerful economic potential. The chief factors of this are a qualified labour force, highly

developed industries and technologies, an excellent system of institutions in education and research, environmental culture (housing construction, natural environment, environmental protection). Added to this are certain sociological characteristics such as a euroregional trilinguality, similar living conditions, a high level of the quality of life, traditional prosperity, a strong civic consciousness, and the increasingly symbolic nature of the borders.

As regards the organisational structure of the euroregion, the supreme controlling authority is the board of directors. It is the board of directors that makes the strategic decisions, approving the annual budget and expressing its stance on the ongoing programmes and the decisions and initiatives concerning development. The day-to-day work goes on in the framework of the bureau maintained by the foundation. All five partners are represented in the bureau.

This, in effect, represents a regional secretariat, which, on the one hand, administers the European structural funds and, on the other, coordinates the regional working groups - in addition to the traditional functions of a secretariat.

The organisational structure of the euroregion has, in the meanwhile, been further refined: the assembly was established, and, in January 1995, the Euroregion Council was constituted in Maastricht. In addition to the political parties, all the important factors and organisations of the euroregion were admitted into the Council, allowing a wide-ranging discussion, and considerable legitimization, of opinions, structures, programmes, projects, and the budget itself (11).

In document andCENTRAL EUROPE (Pldal 46-49)