Economic Development A symmetries and Local Geopolitics A New Approach to Studying Cross Border Cooperation in Europe
Year: 2019

The article maps model(s) of cross border cooperation in Europe by investigating the INTERREG program as a source of data to evaluate the intensity of collaboration and agency in the area. The authors view cross border cooperation as an instrument for overcoming economic underdevelopment, often in the context of (a)symmetries. They also use a geopolitical approach to interpret their findings, despite the fact that these are local and regional relationships and are sometimes considered outside the regular purview of geopolitics. Qualitative and quantitative investigation of four internal borders in the European Union leads to several conclusions. First, the INTERREG program is the main instrument and source of funding for stimulating cross border cooperation within the European Union. Second, when similar types of European cross border projects are investigated, most of them reveal a concentration of project leaders and project partners on only one side of the border. This can be explained with administrative models revealing structural asymmetries as well as the rural/urban nature of the territorial units, uncovering an imbalance in potential on both sides of the border.  The European Union is at a defining moment marked by a number of features, including the crisis of legitimacy. This is not a recent situation but it is definitely intensifying,2 with more and more citizens feeling distant from a process of integration3 that seems stripped of the ideas considered part of the European normality: peace, overcoming borders that arose from conflict, democratization, Margarita Castaner is a geographer working of regional planning and cross border cooperation. She is Associate Professor at Girona University, Spain. She can be contacted at: mita.castaner@udg.edu Jaroslaw Janczak is a political scientist working of European integration processes and cross border cooperation. He is Associate Professor at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznan, Poland, and European University Viadrina, Frankfurt (Oder) Germany. He can be contacted at: jaroslaw.janczak@amu.edu.pl Javier Martin Uceda is a geographer working in political and urban geography, and in cross border cooperation. He is PhD candidate at Girona University, Spain. He can be contacted at: javier.martin@udg.edu 1 This paper is part of the ongoing research project "Cooperacion Transfronteriza en Europa, una geopolitica de escala local. Analisis en cinco paises europeos de buenas practicas para la integracion y el desarrollo global" (TRANSBORDEURCOP) CSO2015 67124 R (MINECO/FEDER,UE) lead by APTA (Environment and Planning Analysis and Planning) research group, in the Geography Department, Universitat de Girona, Spain. 2 Desmond Dinan, Neil Nugent and William Paterson, eds. The European Union in Crisis ( 2017) 3 Claudio Castro Quintas, "Assessing the Democratic Deficit in the EU: Towards a Participatory Approach," RIPS 14:1 (2015) 63 82. DOI: 10.14943/ebr.9.1.67 Eurasia Border Review Article 68 alternatives to a world of polarized superpowers, competitiveness with a human face. At the same time, borders (still) do matter in Europe and are often considered the most important components of political, economic and social processes  The continent's history is a (never ending) process of border creation, border redefinition and border shifting, only recently supplemented by border erosion. Centuries of bordering, 5 visible in territorial conflicts, population resettlement, nation state consolidation and the domination of Westphalian principles,6 have been in many places replaced by debordering tendencies7 together with the expansion of the European integration project,8 especially as embodied in the European Communities and later in the European Union.9 Fueled by neofunctional paradigms (especially as understood in European integration studies barrier elimination and a linear character),10 continental unification processes seek to create a space of peace and stability by means of practical solutions, starting with facilitation of free trade and the creation of benefits in economic development.11 Gradually, these paradigms spilled over into other fields of integration, including other free flows, but also high politics, and were covered with an institutional layer, often supranational in nature.12 At the same time borders very quickly became a part of these processes, playing a crucial role in European integration at several levels.13 First, border erosion embodied the elimination of barriers in the European Union, enabling the creation of common spaces and free flows of people, goods, services and capital. 14 This was translated locally into the tenet of creating new development opportunities.15 Second, borders became laboratories of European integration where the European 4 Melina Pereira Savi, "How Borders Come to Matter? The Physicality of the Border in Gloria Anzaldua's Borderlands/la Frontera,"  (2015) 181 191. 5 Alessandro Vitale, "Myths of Territory and External Borders in the EU's Contemporary Idea and Europe in the Middle Ages," Acta Universitatis Lodzensis.Folia Geographica Socio Oeconomica 26 (2016) 63 80. 6 Benno Teschke, "Theorizing the Westphalian System of States: International Relations from Absolutism to Capitalism,"  (2002) 5 48. 7 Jaroslaw Janczak, "Symmetries, Asymmetries and Cross Border Cooperation on the German Polish Border. Towards a New Model of (De)Bordering," Documents d'Analisi Geografica (2018) 509 527. 8 Liam O'Dowd, "The Changing Significance of European Borders," Regional and Federal Studies 12:4 (2010) 13 36. 9 Stephen Okhonmina, "States without Borders: Westphalia Territoriality under Threat,"  (2010) 177 182. 10 Ernst Haas, Beyond the Nation State. Functionalism and International Organisation () 11 Philippe C. Schmitter, "Ernst B. Haas and the Legacy of Neofunctionalism," Journal of European Public Policy 12:2 (2005) 255 272. 12 Jurgen Bast, "Deepening Supranational Integration: Interstate Solidarity in EU Migration Law," European Public Law 22 (2016) 289 304. 13 Annekatrin Niebuhr, "Spatial Effects of European Integration: Do Border Regions Benefit above Average?" HWWA Discussion Paper 307 (2004) 14 Mirza Totic and Ibrahim Totic, "The Common Market: Paradigm of the Integration Processes within the European Community and the European Union," Actual Problems of Economics 11 (2013) 342 551. 15 Rolf Bergs, "Cross Border Cooperation, Regional Disparities and Integration of Markets in the EU," Journal of Borderlands Studies 27:3 (2012) 345 363. Margarita Castaner, Jaroslaw Janczak and Javier Martin Uceda 69 project was tested in everyday life on a manageable scale by common Europeans.16 Third, they allowed social and cultural flows between European nations, cultures and languages, (re)creating in between spaces through the exchange of ideas, solutions and understandings. At the same time, it quickly became apparent that political will and the functional disappearance of borders was not enough to accelerate these three tendencies and transform them into a sustainable process.17 Cross border cooperation (CBC) requires additional financial and institutional support as the divisive power of state borders has been much stronger than expected. The key initiative in creating that support was proposed and implemented by the European Union in the form of the INTERREG program.18 The aim of this article is to outline the model(s) of cross border cooperation in Europe by investigating the INTERREG program as a source of data, evaluating its intensity and mapping the actors involved. The authors view cross border cooperation as an instrument for overcoming economic underdevelopment, often in the context of (a)symmetries. They also use a geopolitical approach to interpret their findings,19 despite the fact that these relationships are often local and regional, outside the regular purview of geopolitics.20 They assume that the globalization process induces a rethinking of geographical scale,21 strengthening the relationship between global and local arenas. Using that new rationale, regional and local actors become more active and play key roles in globalization.22 On one hand, cities and regions create their networks, along with their own strategies to compete, and play a role in global relations.23 On the other hand, individuals act on a local scale with geopolitical logics, with the idea of "controlling" territory.24 That does not mean denying the state or even the global scale, the usual subjects of geopolitics, but rather proposing a similar approach to understand local and regional developments.25 This paper consists of six sections. After this introduction, the main theoretical considerations are outlined, followed by a short methodological debate. The studies of empirical findings are presented, and interpreted in the following two sections, before a brief conclusion is offered. 16 Common Europeans as category indicates normal citizens of the member states in contrast to the European Union's political elites and bureaucrats. Alberto Gasparini, "European Border Towns as Laboratories of Differentiated Integration," ISIG Quarterly of International Sociology 4 (1999 2000) 17 Antoni Dura and Xavier Oliveras, "Recent Dynamics in European Cross Border Cooperation: towards a New Period?" Paper presented during Regional Studies Association Annual International Conference (Brussels, 2010) 18 Eduardo Medeiros, "Is there a Rise of the Territorial Dimension in the EU Cohesion Policy?" Finisterrac 51:103 (2016) 89 112. 19 Joan Nogue and Joan Vicente, Geopolitica, identidad y globalizacion (Barcelona: Ariel, 2001) 20 Oriol Nel.lo, Aqui no! Conflictes territorials a Catalunya (Barcelona: Empuries, 2003) Peter Taylor, Political Geography: World Economy,