Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
culturally, and hinders the coherent manage-
ment of ecosystems. Second, border areas
have often been neglected within national pol-
icy, with the result that their economies have
tended to become peripheral within national
boundaries.
The fall of the Iron Curtain was followed by
massive increases in cross-border exchange.
But did it have positive impacts on develop-
ment of the adjacent border regions? There cer-
tainly were positive gains by local tourism and
leisure facilities on Austrian and Polish borders
in particular. Cross-border shopping, and to a
far lesser extent trading in response to price gra-
dients for particular products did generate sub-
stantial tourist and other expenditures, but it is
likely that a large proportion of the income gen-
erated was collected by agents located in core
regions: either the state (through sales taxes on
alcohol and petrol) or international companies.
There is, then, no unequivocal evidence that
cross-border mobility contributes to regional
convergence.
The mayors in the above-mentioned sur-
vey themselves had ambiguous opinions with
respect to the regional impacts of the liberaliza-
tion of travel after 1989. On balance, a quarter
to a third considered the changes had been pos-
itive for their local economies and for living
standards and the development of local culture.
More than one half of the mayors, however,
related liberalized travel to increasing crime
rates. Again, there were differences by border
region. A positive balance was most likely in the
Austrian (57.1%), followed by the Hungarian
(45.8%) and the Polish (38.6%) border regions.
The mayors in the Ukrainian border region
were more likely to be negative. Those on the
Czech border were more likely to consider there
were 'no changes', reflecting the low barriers
constituted by the border even after the 'Velvet
Divorce'. In general, the more developed the
neighbouring country, the more positive the
opinions. The mayors in the region bordering
Austria, for example, were strongly positive as
to the impact on their economies, and of course
this was the region where trans-border labour
migration and trade opportunities were greatest.
There were also positive assessments of the
impacts on cultural life in the regions bordering
Austria, Poland and Hungary, probably related
to increased tourism and intercultural contacts.
In contrast, the mayors of the regions bordering
Ukraine complained mainly about the decline
in living standards, increased crime and the
impoverishment of local cultural life. Weak
cross-border cooperation primarily was caused
by the ongoing significance of the national state
as a centre of regulation. Local and regional
authorities were given few responsibilities in this
area. The lack of effective regulation of national
economic spaces, including a coherent regional
policy, was another reason for the failure to
facilitate cross-border cooperation. Despite
these reservations, judging from the experi-
ence of Western Europe, cross-border cooper-
ation is likely to become more prominent on
the political agenda in future. The survey
showed that most of the mayors did consider
this to be an important issue for the future, and
that 53% considered it could significantly boost
the local economy, culture and tourism in their
area.
Strengthening cooperation to the mutual
advantage of border areas was an important
task both for accession countries and the
European Union. Enlargement has increased
the number of EU internal borders and has pro-
gressively shifted its external borders eastwards.
The EU programmes promoting the single mar-
ket were strong catalysts for improvements in
cross-border cooperation (European Commis-
sion, 1998). In Slovakia, these programmes
developed in several stages.
The Phare Cross-Border Co-operation
(CBC) Programme started with a limited
number of small projects aimed at improve-
ment of local infrastructure in the 1990s
(MVRRSR, 2004c). In 2004 Phare CBC was
replaced by the Interreg III initiative.
●
From May 2004 Slovakia was also able to
access the Cohesion Fund, much of which
funding has been allocated to building
basic infrastructure (motorways and rail-
ways)
●
(European
Commission,
2001;
MVRRSR, 2004a).
Slovakia's planned membership of the
Schengen area was reflected in the recon-
stitution of the Slovak-Ukrainian border as
an external Schengen-type border. Here
Slovakia has largely relied on means pro-
vided by the Schengen Transition Fund
(MVSR, 2004c).
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