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Ulrich Bohner: “Development of transfrontier co-operation depends on devolution”

Speaking in Strasbourg during a seminar on the European dimension of transfrontier co-operation, the Secretary General of the Congress, Ulrich Bohner, recalled the role performed for 60 years by the Council of Europe in this field, while advocating a boost to this co-operation.

Question: The Council of Europe was the first to promote transfrontier co-operation at European level, but the European Union also concerns itself with this subject; how is co-operation between these two entities organised?

Ulrich Bohner: May I recall that the mere choice of Strasbourg as the Council of Europe headquarters back in 1949 signified the resolve of 10 founding countries to establish the Organisation on a border, precisely in order to overcome the conflicts generated by borders, those “scars of history” as they were called by Denis de Rougemont. In 1980 in Madrid, the Council of Europe adopted the first outline convention on transfrontier co-operation, which allowed it to take off. Today many regions of the European Union are engaged in co-operation programmes, like the Interreg programmes, but we make sure that the regions of the Union non-member countries too are able to carry on such actions among themselves: therein lies the entire meaning of a new protocol to the Madrid convention, which will enable one member state’s local and regional government to intervene in another state to provide specific services there, for example in environment or health. That might concern countries like Ukraine and Russia or Turkey and Georgia.

Question: What are the main thrusts at present of Congress policy on transfrontier co-operation?

Ulrich Bohner: Besides the major work of training and study which we pursue throughout Europe with regular staging of conferences and seminars, we have created the concept of Euroregions, around the three main semi-landlocked seas of Europe – the Adriatic, the Baltic and the Black Sea. The Adriatic Euroregion holds promise and illustrates the progress of co-operation between member countries of the Union and others not belonging to it except well into the future. The Black Sea Euroregion was launched in September 2008, but this project is less advanced principally because the local authorities of all the participating countries do not have the same degree of power and autonomy.

Question: To you, is this autonomy of local authorities the key to transfrontier co-operation?

Ulrich Bohner: Plainly, devolution alone can give local authorities enough latitude to let them collaborate effectively with their counterparts on the other side of a border. Transfrontier co-operation depends on the furtherance of local and regional democracy and presupposes that elected representatives are well-trained, acting in the framework of effective local administrations. The Congress bears this political message, and it needs to be constantly recalled that transfrontier co-operation, far from just a factor of stability, is also a leading instrument of economic development.