This 2-day Conference co-organised by the Institute for Transnational and Euregional cross-border cooperation and Mobility (ITEM) as well as the Transfrontier Euro-Institut Network (TEIN) and supported by the Borders in Globalization-21st century project, addresses 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.
Registration deadline: 20-9-2024 | 23.59 u
About the conference
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. 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.
