SEMINAR ON PROSPECTS FOR EFFECTIVE TRANSFRONTIER COOPERATION IN EUROPE

16-17 September 2014

Council of Europe, Strasbourg

Draft programme (as of 5 September 2014)

Tuesday, 16 September 2014 - Room 3 (Interpretation DE/EN/FR)

14.00                     Registration

14.15                     Opening and Introduction

                                               Nataliya ROMANOVA, President of the Chamber of Regions

                              

14.30                     Improving transfrontier cooperation - recent work of the Council of Europe

                                Prospects for effective transfrontier cooperation in Europe – conclusions of the report for the Governance Committee of the Congress of Local and regional authorities

                Prof. Dr.  Joachim BECK, University of Applied Sciences/TEIN-Research

                Breda PECAN, Congress rapporteur on transfrontier cooperation

               

                Removing obstacles to transfrontier cooperation – conclusions of a report of the European Committee for Democracy and Governance (CDDG)

                Paul-Henri PHILIPS, President of CDDG

15.30                     Coffee-break

16.00                     Projects and initiatives of other European actors

                The territorial Impact assessment strategy of the Committee of the Regions

                 María LOZANO URIZ, Unit E2 Subsidiarity Monitoring and Territorial Impact Assessment
                                 Directorate E Horizontal Policies and Networks

                Conference of European Cross-border und Interregional City Networks (CECICN) and the Budapest Platform

                Jean PEYRONY, Director General of Transfrontier Operational Mission (MOT)

                Stimulating basic and applied research on transfrontier cooperation

                Prof. Dr. Birte WASSENBERG, University of Strasbourg/Transfrontier Euro-Institut Network (TEIN) Research

                Prof. Dr.  Joachim BECK, University of Applied Sciences/TEIN-Research

17.30                     Discussion and lead questions for next day

18.00                     Close

                                Monique JUNG, Vice-President of the Euro-Institut

20.00                     Joint dinner in Restaurant de la Victoire, 24 Quai des Pêcheurs, tram stop ‘Gallia’

Wednesday, 17 September 2014 - Room 3 (Interpretation DE/EN/FR)

9.00                       Welcome and introduction to Workshops (Room 3)

                Prof. Dr. Joachim BECK, University of Applied Sciences/TEIN

9.15 – 12.00        Three parallel workshops

Workshop 1:      Legal aspects of transfrontier cooperation (Room 3, DE/EN/FR)

Workshop 2:      Evidence based transfrontier cooperation (Room 2, EN)

Workshop 3:      Capacity-building and training for transfrontier cooperation (Room 6, EN)

12.00 – 14.00      Lunch break

14.00 – 16.30      Plenary session (Room 3, DE/EN/FR)

Developing an action plan for effective transfrontier cooperation in Europe

                               Moderation: Prof. Dr. Joachim BECK

15.00 -15.30     Coffee break

Feedback from the workshops:

Workshop 1:      Legal aspects of transfrontier cooperation, Rapporteur Prof Guy SIAT

Workshop 2:      Evidence based transfrontier cooperation, Rapporteur Dr. Martin GUILLERMO RAMIREZ
Workshop 3:      Capacity-building and training for transfrontier cooperation,                                                                                                   Rapporteur Prof. Stanka Setnikar CANKAR

                               Debate: Defining topics, items, roles/responsibilities and the follow-up

16.30 – 17.00     Conclusions

Karl-Heinz LAMBERTZ, Chair of the Congress Governance Committee

Breda PECAN, Congress Rapporteur on transfrontier co-operation

Andreas KIEFER, Secretary General of the Congress

17.00                     End of the seminar

Workshop 1: Legal aspects of transfrontier cooperation (Room 3, DE/EN/FR)

The legal preconditions for transfrontier co-operation in Europe are characterized by the fact that most legal areas which are relevant to horizontal exchanges, taking place within the context of transfrontier territories, are not yet (and probably will not be in the nearer future) harmonized at the European level. For practical transfrontier policy-making this regularly leads to massive obstacles which go far beyond the question of what kind of legal form the transfrontier co-operation can take. In a situation like this it seems necessary to better analyze and understand the possibilities and limits of developing special thematic legal provisions for transfrontier territories.

Leading questions of the workshop are: what is the appropriate legal level (thematic law, administrative law, regulations, recommendations etc.)? What are the appropriate forms (solutions within existing legal provisions, specific transfrontier co-operation provisions)? What are the appropriate instruments (bi-national framework agreements, thematic agreements, opening clauses in thematic law, thematic provisions inspired by the idea of generalized transfrontier de minimis rules etc.)?

Moderation:      Prof. Dr. Joachim BECK

Prof. Guy SIAT, IEP/University of Strasbourg

The legal framework for transfrontier cooperation in Europe

Dr. iur. Marcin Krzymuski, LL.M, Europa-Universität Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)

Legal obstacles to transfrontier cooperation
                Dr. Daniele Del Bianco, Director of the Institute of International Sociology Gorizia (ISIG), Italy

Legal flexibilisation-the point of view of a national government from Western Europe

Josef Brink, Head of unit, Federal Ministry of Justice, Berlin

Legal flexibilisation-the point of view of Poland

Mr Filip CHYBALSKI, Territorial Cooperation Department, Ministry of Regional Development

                               Warsaw, Poland

                               Legal flexibilisation- the point of view of Slovenia

                               Andrej ČOKERT, Ministry of the Interior, Office for Local Self-Government, Slovenia

Legal flexibilisation from the point of a cross-border territory

Patrice Harster, Director General, Eurodistrict Pamina

Dr. Hynek BÖHM, from the PL-CZ-SZ border territory, Association EUROSCHOLA

Discussion:         Elements of a prospective action plan

Workshop 2: Evidence based transfrontier cooperation (Room 2, EN)

Beside the lack of appropriate thematic legal provisions, transfrontier co-operation is often also limited by the lack of sound information and data upon the potentialities and challenges of the given cross border territory. It is astonishing that even in  transfrontier territories that do have a long existing transfrontier policy-making frame already in place (institutions, organisations, committees, programmes and projects.) detailed information for informed transfrontier development strategies are often still missing. This is due to the difficulties of different national statistical systems working together, often characterised by their own traditions and methods. Even the European statistical services have not yet developed a data frame that provides the necessary basis for informed transfrontier policy-making. Although some pilot-projects do exist (such as under the ESPON-programme, supported by DG REGIO) the overall situation is less then satisfying in this regard.

                Moderation:      Dr. Martin Guillermo RAMIREZ, AEBR

Jean PEYRONY, MOT

               

                Gathering Data for evidence-based programme-planning – the experience of

“INTERREG V”

Leva KALNINA / INTERACT Point Viborg

                Evidence based project and programme development - the Impact Assessment

                Toolkit for cross-border cooperation

Ruth TAILLON, Director Centre for Cross Border Studies in Ireland

                Possibilities and limits in using national and European statistics for transfrontier             policy making – The example of the Upper-Rhine

Prof. Dr. Emmanuel MULLER, University of Strasbourg

Building transfrontier monitoring capacities – the example of the all-Ireland Atlas

Justin Gleeson, Director, All-Island Research Observatory (AIRO)

National Institute for Regional and Spatial Analysis (NIRSA),

National University of Ireland, Maynooth

Discussion:         Elements of a prospective action plan

Workshop 3: Capacity-building and training for transfrontier cooperation

                          (Room 6, EN)

                A key bottleneck preventing the deepening of transfrontier co-operation in Europe is the lack of knowledge and understanding of the political and administrative systems of the neighbouring countries. Successful transfrontier co-operation needs qualified actors who are able to close the gap between the subsystem and its specific functional characteristics and the functional preconditions provided by the different domestic jurisdictions involved. Transfrontier training should be structured according to the needs identified by the actors involved in transfrontier co-operation. It is essential in this respect, to provide a multi-national and multi-cultural orientation.

                Moderation:      Prof. Stanka Setnikar CANKAR, University of Ljubljana/TEIN

                                               Anne DUSSAP, Euro-Institut

Capacity-building for cross-border territories in Europe – The TEIN approach

Anne THEVENET, Deputy-Director, Euro-Institut

Capacity-building in the Danube macro-region – The example of DANTE4PA

Sebastian RIHM, project-manager, Euro-Institut

Building the Alpine macro-region – a need for capacity building (tbc)

Experience of capacity-building in the Balkans

Branislav Bugarski, Autonomous Province of Vojvodina, Provincial Secretary for Interregional Cooperation and Local Self-government

Capacity building at inter-local level – the case of the Eurodistrict Strasbourg/Ortenau Cordula Riedel, Director General, Eurodistrict Strasbourg/Ortenau

The critical dictionary on transfrontier cooperation – knowledge generation as basis for a sustainable for capacity-building

Prof. Dr. Birte WASSENBERG, IEP/University of Strasbourg

Discussion:         Elements of a prospective action plan