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Cross-border
economic
development
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Vienna - Bratislavaand neighboring regions
Language training is a crucial issue for the territory’s economic
development and the expansion of the potential labour pool.
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That is why
the Land of Lower Austria developed an original
project
that was adopted by the neighbouring Länder and
then took on a cross-border dimension, with the setting-up of
equivalent programmes on the other side of Austria’s borders. The
project consists in introducing the languages of the neighbouring
countries to children in kindergarten. This strategy gives children
an awareness of the cross-border character of the region and
of the culture of the neighbouring countries from the youngest
age. At the end of a young person’s school career, knowledge
of the neighbouring country’s language increases the potential
for cooperation in all areas.
Players in cross-border economic
governance
The public stakeholders involved in the economic development and
planning aspect of cross-border cooperation are the authorities of the
regions concerned (regarding the Vienna-Bratislava axis, the two capital
city regions and the region of Lower Austria, which surrounds the Vienna
region). Given that Austria is a federal State, these two regions are in fact
Länder and have broader powers than in the neighbouring countries,
which are all centralised and where decentralisation processes are even
difficult to put in place. The federal level makes it possible to share the
objectives linked to European funds intended for Austria and the good
practices of the Länder, which perform an important coordination role.
In Slovakia, the Czech Republic and Hungary, the regions have very
limited autonomy and cross-border issues require decisions taken
by central government, which makes cross-border cooperation with
Austria more complex.
The consular chambers, particularly the chambers of commerce, also
cooperate with one another, mainly via informal contacts and regular
meetings (involving the sharing of experiences and assistance and
recommendations from Austria in particular). Cross-border projects
have been carried out, like the DUO**STARS project mentioned above.
The Centrope Region, which was created by INTERREG III A and
straddles the four countries, is now seeking to strengthen institutional
cooperation between the different public stakeholders concerned by the
territory’s cross-border development. While this project’s importance is
undeniable, with obvious potential synergies, structuring this cooperation
is more complicated owing to the different modes of organisation and
priorities other than the cross-border dimension.
In terms of European programmes, those devoted to cross-border
territories do not include aid to SMEs as it is too complex to implement
(involvement of businesses and de minimis aid). Only interregional and
transnational programmes address it by including the cross-border
dimension (development opportunities for businesses). In a general way,
the objective of ETC is formulated less in terms of integration (increase
of flows, joint strategies) than in terms of encouragement to businesses
and workers to exploit the cross-border potential (R&D resources on the
other side of the border, markets for SMEs, linguistic knowledge, etc.).
Learning the languages of neighbouring countries in schools, cross-border programme initiated by the Land of Lower Austria