Innsbruck seminar debates experiences and new perspectives in the field of transfrontier co-operation in Europe

Innsbruck (Austria), 30 May 2012.- The kick-off seminar  to introduce a series of events on regionalisation and multi-level governance, scheduled from 30 May to 1 June in the Innsbruck Congress centre, was dedicated to experiences and perspectives in the field of co-operation between regions in Europe. For Karl-Heinz Lambertz, Chair of the Governance Committee of the Congress of the Council of Europe, this was a “symbolic opening event”, since co-operation between regions also forms part of the concept of multi-level governance.  Joachim Beck from the Euro-Institute in Kehl (Germany), co-organisator of the Congress seminar, described the strengthening of horizontal subsidiarity – ways to ensure appropriate freedom of action for the different levels of government - as crucial also for effective co-operation beyond borders.

Awareness raising and involvement of citizens is of utmost importance for Birgit Oberkofler who presented the Euroregion “Tirol – Suedtirol –Trentino”, a legal instrument (European Grouping of Territorial Co-operation) created to further develop co-operation between Austria and Italy. Klaus Schuele spoke about the experiences of the Upper-Rhine region where joint activities between regions of Germany, France and Switzerland have been successfully carried out over the past 30 years. Oleksiy Matyushenko presented targeted objectives of the Euroregion “Yaroslavna”, a co-operation structure between Ukraine and Russia. 

For Hans-Martin Tschudi, member of the Group of Independent Experts on the European Charter of Local Self-Government, successful  co-operation beyond borders is based on concrete and pragmatic work at the grassroots level and well-functioning communication between different  actors. The meeting was concluded by an exchange of views on possible new fields of action, for example in respect of the new concept of “transborder identity”, developed by Olivier Denert from the Transborder Operational Mission (Mot).