1. Hungarian prospect of CBC with Ukraine and Belarus and
experiences on cooperation between authorities and civil
society organizations
Sándor Köles
Senior Advisor, ICDT, Hungary
17, March 2017
Chernihiv
4. The Carpathian Euroregion
Hungary
Borsod-Abaúj-Zemplén, Hajdú-Bihar,
Heves, Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok és
Szabolcs-Szatmár-Bereg counties
Poland
Subcarpathian region
Romania
Bihor, Botosani, Harghita,
Maramures, Salaj, Suceava and Satu
Mare counties
Slovakia
Presov and Kosice counties
Ukrajna
Chernivetska, Ivano-Frankivska,
Lvivska and Zakarpatska oblasts
161,135 km2Territory:
15,948,468 főPopulation:
5. Main characteristics of Hungarian perception of
CBC
• Hungary was pioneer promoting CBC in a wider Europe
since the late 80’s (learning and sharing experiences)
• Changes in CBC policy in mid 2000: more focus on
Hungarian-Hungarian cooperation across border
• CBC became an instrument for „national policy” and
lost its inter-ethnic and intercultural focus
• Today focuses only on Hungarian border regions
surrounded by Hungarian communities and lost
European perspective („ethnopolitical approach)
• Participation in transnational programs (Danube
strategy, Alp-Adriatic working group)
6. Experiences
CBC is successful only, otherwise fails, if:
- There are shared values among participating countries
– There is a common interest exists between participating entities and
cooperation is beyond protocol
– The territory of any forms of CBC like euroregion is not too large
(Carpathian Euroregion) and meet with the criteria of functionality
(history, geography, etc.)
– Takes into consideration the different level of competencies (oblasts,
counties, rayons, local governments) and compatibility
– Has a cross-sectoral approach (business, private and local
governments)
– Goes beyond ethnicity and national identities without ignoring it
– Civil society and local communities are actively involved
