Daniel Badulescu, Alina Badulescu and Catalin‐Adrian Bucur
local communities, exactly those who were addressed public order services, whether these services have local, regional or national extension. They are considered as actual beneficiaries in an almost same extent as the effective target groups of each project, and followed by the region as a whole( see Figure 1). Although the prevalence of these groups( local communities and the region as a whole) could generate some criticism due to the high level of generalization, the role of these collaborative projects has been exactly to create a secure environment for economic, social, cultural activities, and to involve a large number of participants on both sides of the border.
Source: Own calculations based on data set Figure 1: The main actual beneficiaries of cross‐border cooperation programs
4.2 Are the benefits sufficiently important, equitable and sustainable to promote a new framework for development or to enhance cross‐border cooperation in the field of public services?
Cross‐border cooperation is still a new approach and the present stage relates to creating the foundations for future cooperation, both in administrative sector and in economic, social and cultural areas. The challenges and objectives of public order activities cannot be isolated and limited within the borders of a country. The crimes and antisocial behaviors, and the consequences of incidental or deliberate human actions and destructive natural phenomena could endanger life and assets, exceeding and crossing the formal borders.
The survey data have indicated the respondents share mutual interests and objectives and a high awareness on these issues. 44 % of them“ agreed” that the benefits of existing cooperation are“ strong” and“ sustainable” enough to constitute a framework for further development or to enhance cross‐border cooperation in the field of public order and security; 47 %“ largely agreed” with this statement, and only the remaining 9 % did not agree or did not respond to this question. The optimistic answers indicate a tempered optimism, based on daily work realities, but also express the relatively limited experience in these programs. In other words, although there are high expectations from this cooperation, the results are the most important element of validating their effectiveness.
If separately analyzed by origin country of the respondents, it can be noticed a relatively balanced distribution: both in the case of Romanian and Hungarian respondents, each option(" yes " or " mostly yes ") sharing approximately 48‐50 % of the answers. This is particularly important when considering the chances of new cross‐border cooperation actions and the fact that expectations and confidence in the success of these programs exist, in similar forms, on both sides of the border.
4.3 The prospects of cross‐border cooperation in the field of public order and security
Concerning the main threats and risks associated with cross‐border cooperation programs, and particularly how actions and projects can go further and continue in the future, the opinions converge on the idea of their future sustainability. Nevertheless, the optimism must be tempered and turned in a more realistic register
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