• The future of cross-border cooperation and mobility: Horizontal integration and beyond

    The two-day Conference, co-organised by the Institute for Transnational and Euregional cross-border cooperation and Mobility (ITEM) and the Transfrontier Euro-Institut Network (TEIN) and supported by the Borders in Globalization-21st century project, took place on the 26th and 27th of September 2024 at the European Institute of Public Administration in Maastricht.

    The Conference addressed the practical challenges and prospects of future cross-border cooperation and mobility and advances debates and policy outlooks around and beyond the concept of horizontal integration.

    Crossing the border daily is part and parcel of the life world of millions of Europeans. Whether traveling for work, to study, to shop, or for leisure, inhabitants of border regions go regularly back and forth between one country and another. In our cross-border mobility we experience not only the pleasures of the EU’s freedom to travel, but in many ways also still face administrative and cooperative limits, and problematic differences in social security, taxation, health systems, diploma recognition, crime control, cross-border entrepreneurship, studying, sustainability, energy transformation etc.

    Since Maastricht 1992 we have come a long way in fostering cooperation and mobility in cross-border regions, but cross-border cooperation and mobility is easier said than done. We haven’t (yet) cleared all technical, legislative, and cultural obstacles for a borderless process of European integration. How can we move forward to the next level of European integration in cross-border regions? Which innovations in cross-border governance mechanisms do we need?

    The European integration discourse has long been dominated by the concept of vertical integration, that is to say on the relationship between the EU and its member states. Horizontal integration implies a process between similar public and private authorities across state borders at lower (regional and municipal) administrative level as well as people to people interactions.

  • First conference day: 26 September 2024
    Welcome by the Mayor of Maastricht Wim Hillenaar

    Welcome remarks by hosts Anne Thevenet (TEIN/Euro-Institut), Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly (BIG), Anouk Bollen (ITEM)
    First keynote address

    Ricardo Ferreira DG REGIO
    Thematic plenary session: The Future of Cohesion in Cross-border Regions

    Moderator: Martin Unfried, senior researcher, ITEM, Maastricht University

    Panellists:

    1.      Karl-Heinz Lambertz, High-level working group on future of cohesion policy

    2.      Ricardo Ferreira, DG REGIO

    3.      Bram de Kort, Director Interreg Flanders-The Netherlands

    4.      Emmanuel Brunet-Jailly, Jean Monnet Chair, European Union Policy and Governance, University of Victoria
    Plenary paper presentation – TEIN Cross-Border Impact Assessment: Facilitating Cross-Border Solutions in the European border regions – the revised ECBM – An instrument for Horizontally integrated Europe?

    A new instrument has been proposed to boost cross-border cooperation in Europe and to foster development in border regions: Facilitating Cross-Border Solutions. This panel will present insights from different border regions across Europe and assess what the impact would be. Insights from border regions in the Benelux territory, Germany, Poland, Hungary, Slovenia, France and Austria by ITEM, CESCI, WSB, Euro-Institut, Faculty of Public Administration – University of Ljubljana, Viadrina Center B/ORDERS IN MOTION, Carinthia University of Applied Sciences.

    Moderator: Martin Unfried

    Panellists:

    1.      Joanna Kurowska-Pysz, WSB University in Dąbrowa Górnicza, Poland, Potential effects of the proposed Facilitation Tool in Polish border regions

    2.      Gyula Ocskay, CESCI, Potential effects in Hungarian border regions

    3.      Clarisse Klauber, Euro-Institut , Effects in the German-French border regions

    4.      Pim Mertens, ITEM-Maastricht University, Effects in the Benelux area
    Thematic plenary session

    Cross-border cooperation: structural inhibitors and functional enablers

    Moderator: Math Noortmann,  ITEM-Maastricht University

    Panellists:

    1.      Vincent Pijnenburg, Professor in Cross-Border Regional Development Fontys Hogeschool (Venlo), President of the Business Club Maas Rhein

    2.      Gennard Stulens, accountmanager België bij het Euregionaal Informatie- en Expertise Centrum (EURIEC)

    3.      Marcel Schumacher, Director of the Kunsthaus NRW Kornelimünster, Boardmember of Very Contemporary, the Network of Contemporary Art Venues in the Meuse-Rhine Region
    Plenary paper presentation – Attitudes on European Integration in Border Regions in the light of the European Parliament Elections 2024

    Moderator: Birte Wassenberg, (Sciences Po Strasbourg)

    Panellists:

    1.      Bernard Reitel (University of Artois): Cross-border regions as laboratories for European integration in the perspective of the European elections 2024: a comparison of the Franco-German and Franco-Belgian borderlands

    2.      Birte Wassenberg (Sciences Po Strasbourg): European narratives at the Franco-German border (Upper Rhine and Greater Region) in the light of European Elections 2024

    3.      Fabienne Leloup (UCLouvain): What future in terms of cooperation for a pioneering cross-border region? A study at the Franco-Walloon border.

    4.      Martin Unfried (ITEM – Maastricht University): The cross-border aspects in the manifestos for the European Parliament Elections 2024
    Welcome Reception hosted by the Municipality of Maastricht, City Hall Maastricht

  • Second conference day: 27 September 2024
    Welcome Remarks by Anouk Bollen (ITEM/Maastricht University)
    Second keynote address: Cross-border Governance

    Sebastian Gröning- von Thüna, Federal Ministry of Foreign Affairs Germany
    Parallel paper session 1A: Cross-border regions in national and European policies

    Moderator: Martin Unfried

    Panellists:

    1.      Michael Frey (HS Kehl): Towards de-territorialised cross-border cooperation: Exceptional rules for cross-border situations without territorial differentiation criteria

    2.      Jean-Francois Clouzet (Savoie Mont-Blanc University) & Tamara Espineira-Guirao (Sciences Po Rennes): A self-centered approach of EU instruments: Active subsidiarity in cross-border cooperation

    3.      Zsuzsanna Fejes (University of Public Services): Evaluation and the Future of Cross-border Cooperation in Hungary

    4.      Loth van der Auwermeulen (UHasselt), Pim Mertens (Maastricht University):  Facilitating Cross-Border Solutions: new instrument from a horizontal dimension –
    Parallel paper session 1B: Cross-Border Integration and Cooperation from Lingual and Cultural perspectives

    Moderator: Math Noortmann

    Panellists:

    1.      Jordi Cicres (University of Girona): Cross-border Cooperation and the Maintenance and Revitalization of Minority Languages

    2.      Dmitry Pakhomov (WSB University, AWSB Dąbrowa Górnicza): The Role of Tourism in the Cross-Border Cooperation between the West Pomeranian Voivodship in Poland and Mecklenburg Pomerania in Germany

    3.      Max Klöters (Fontys Venlo): Adapting new horizons: Unravelling individual readiness in cross-border collaboration within the Dutch-German Borderland

    4.      Ahmed Bakry (Kassel University): Measuring the cross-border integration level through the cross-border cultural powers. The case studies of the Basque, Flemish, and Upper Rhine cross-border regions in the EU
    Plenary Session Resilient Cross-border Cooperation in times of Crisis

    Moderator: Martin Unfried

    Panellists:

    1.      Pim Mertens (ITEM, Maastricht University): Cross-border Cooperation & Crisis Management: Results related to Floods and Pandemic

    2.      Joanna Kurowska-Pysz (AWSB WSB University in Dąbrowa Górnicza, Poland): Managing cross-border projects towards more resilient cooperation in borderlands. The post-pandemic perspective

    3.      Ruslan Zhechkov (Technopolis):  Strengthening the Resilience of EU Border Regions

    4.      Marian Ramakers (EMRIC): Crisis Management from a practitioner’s view
    Parallel paper session 2A Cross-border mobility: Labour and Business

    Moderator: Susanne Sivonen

    Panellists:

    1.      Caroline Fischer & Le Anh Long (University Twente): Pooling Cross-border Human Resources in the Healthcare Sector

    2.      Oskar J. Bronsgeest & Sofie Moresi (Fontys Venlo): Learning organizations in a cross-border context: What are the leadership challenges of cross-border business development in the Dutch-German borderland?

    3.      Margot Bonnafous & Fabienne Schimek (Euro-Institut): Grasping crises as a whole – About current challenges and perspectives in light of the labour market transformation in the Upper Rhine Region
    Parallel paper session 2B Cross-border education

    Moderator: Helga K. Hallgrimsdottir

    Panellists:

    1.      Svetlana Buko (SASS FUDS) & Giustina Selvelli (University of Ljubljana): Exploring the Value of Cross-Border Business Curricula: A Case Study of the Collaborative Design on the Slovenian-Italian Border for MA Level Program in Intercultural Management

    2.      Manuel Justen, (Euregio Meuse-Rhine), Experiences from the Project EMRLingua. Cross-border Cooperation in the education sector

    3.      Yaroslav Lazur, (Uzhhorod National University): EGTC as a form of development of cross-border cooperation of higher education institutions in the Visegrad Group states and Ukraine
    Plenary conclusions and closure by Anne Thevenet (Euro-Institut/TEIN)

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