EUBORDERREGIONS · European Regions, EU External Borders and the Immediate Neighbours. Analysing Regional Development Options through Policies and Practices of Cross-Border Co-operation

EUBORDERRREGIONS will investigate the manifold consequences of increasing cross-border interaction for the development of regions at the EU’s external borders and, in this way, contribute to scientific and policy debate on the future of economic, social and territorial cohesion within the EU. Importantly, the project will contextualise development issues in selected EU “Borderlands” with regard to interaction between the EU and countries of the immediate “neighbourhood”. Within the context of these challenges, the regions at issue here are struggling to define new opportunities for social and economic development and are also attempting to create greater capacities for territorial cooperation with other regions. Despite all criticisms levelled at the European Commission, the EU as market and political institution has been absolutely essential in preparing the ground for greater economic and political interaction. Much will therefore depend on how EU policies and policy discourses translate into political capital for local/regional cross-border cooperation in the new borderlands. At the same time, the issue of capacity building and exploitation of the benefits of strategic cross-border co-operation must be clearly addressed at the local and regional level.As such, these border regions will be treated as interfaces between development dynamics and policy frameworks operating within the EU, on the one hand, and in neighbouring countries, on the other. In doing this, the project will also contribute to the state of the art of policy-oriented research on regional development and cohesion within Europe.