Transborder Co-Operation: Case Studies

Abstract

The independence in any border-region which has potentially joined a cross-border co-operation agreement implies at least two problems: on one hand, no participating side can be forced into the cross-border co-operation coalition but participation must be voluntary; on the other hand, the participating sides can always opt for leaving the cross-border co-operation agreement even if they had initially decided in favour of participation. Even though there are both advantages and costs in the process of cross-border cooperation between different political authorities, as the cross-border relationships in border-regions have been, and still often are, relationships of conflicts for various reasons, such as the existence of different ethnic minorities, fear of immigration, fear of unfair competition, negative environmental spillover effects, and so on, more and more border-regions have been transformed from conflictual relationships into relationships of co-operation, whenever bilateral relationships are economically interpreted in a larger space perspective. In this chapter, we will briefly introduce, inter alia, four major ongoing transborder co-operation programmes, which include: (i) the European cross-border co-operation programmes; (ii) the US¡ªMexican border environment co-operation; (iii) China’s transprovincial border economic zones (BEZs); and (iv) the Turnen River area development programme (TRADP).