Alina Badulescu, Daniel Badulescu and Catalin‐Adrian Bucur
Hungarian border. Given that the euroregion itself is a recent creation( since 2002), as expected, cross‐border cooperation in the field of public order and security in Bihor – Hajdú‐Bihar Euroregion is only at the beginning. Considering also the nature of the police organization, traditionally more reluctant to the idea of openness and cooperation, the results are more than promising and encouraging.
Based on a questionnaire consisting of 20 questions related to cross‐border cooperation actions already undertaken, we investigated the opinions of experts and top managers in public order and security institutions on both sides of the Romania‐Hungarian border. We approached different issues of the specific way that institutions and persons have been involved in standard cross‐border interventions or projects and their experience, how the initial objectives have been achieved, the obstacles and achievements in cross‐border cooperation actions, the communication between partners, the effectiveness of cooperation, the effects on beneficiaries, the satisfaction of cross‐border partners, how their experiences can be shared as a premise for further deepening cooperation in the same or in other cross border areas.
The main conclusions are, briefly, the following:
• The cooperation actions are still limited on the scale of cooperation stages, have a reduced scale, mainly focused on solving specific problems, having an exploratory role of mutual knowledge and identify common problems;
• Related to initial objectives, the cross‐border cooperation actions have been achieved in a greater extent their goals;
• Cross‐border cooperation faces various obstacles and failures, and the most important source of them are specific laws and regulations, lack of financial resources, bureaucracy and centralization;
• All activities listed, e. g. accelerating the information exchange, joint publication of materials and brochures related to public order and security, staff specialization and development, partnerships between national / transnational institutions sharing responsibilities in the field of public order and security, developing necessarily skills for more effectively accessing European funds, are considered to have medium or high efficiency. It also emerged the strong necessity to develop further programmes focused on improving ICT skills of operating staff;
• The most important beneficiaries of these programs are the local communities and the region as a whole, i. e. the usual recipients of public order services;
• In terms of perceived threats and dangers to the sustainability of projects undertaken, the experts consider that these programs have an undeniable future and cross‐border cooperation will exceed the current initial stage; however, their post‐funding continuity remains a difficult issue especially in the current economic crisis.
Local public services and their provision across euro‐borders remains an open and interesting area, both for researchers and scientists and for practitioners involved in specific cooperation actions. For many countries in Central and Eastern Europe, cross‐border cooperation is, undoubtedly, at its beginnings, but the results obtained in only 10 years by a normal, ordinary Euroregion, such as investigated in our paper, are encouraging and mobilizing.
References
Association of European Border Regions; European Commsission( 2000) Practical Guide to Cross‐border Cooperation, Gronau, Germany: Association of European Border Regions( AEBR).
Baldwin, R. and Forslid, R.( 2000)” The Core ‐ Periphery Model and Endogenous Growth: Stabilizing and Destabilizing
Integration”, Economica, Vol 67, pp. 307‐324. Bihor County Council( 2012) Bihor ‐ Hajdu‐Bihar Euroregion, [ online ], http:// www. cjbihor. ro / index. php? act = euroregiune. BRECO( 2012) Regional Office for Cross‐border Cooperation for Romanian‐Hungarian Border, [ online ], http:// www. brecoradea. ro / index. php / programe / cooperare‐teritoriala‐europeana. Council of Europe( 1980) European Outline Convention on Transfrontier Co‐operation between Territorial Communities or
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