Cloth-saleswomen visiting the centre of Peipiääre rural municipality. Photo: Odd Iglebaek
The peripheral border regions in question are usually located on the EUs fringes, bordering less economically developed third countries. In fact, they are becoming "double peripheries" within a greater European context – distant not only from the dynamic centres of "Core Europe" - but also from prosperous national centres as well. There are a number of reasons for this growing gap.
First, we have the conflicting goals of EU economic growth and cohesion policies. The economic growth policies are aimed at promoting efficient economic development in the Member States; the regional convergence policy however promotes cohesion on the overall European level, not at the Member States level.
As new EU Member States have to compete economically with the "old" Member States, this is done at the expense of underdeveloped peripheral, and especially rural, areas in the "new states" which do not have the skilled personnel, RTD potential and infrastructure that the highly developed centres, usually national capitals, have. Therefore these peripheral areas constantly lose out in the race to boost economic attractiveness and productivity.
Contradictory EU-border policies
Another such conflict undermining the ability of peripheral regions to compete relates to the numerous contradictions between EU policies supporting cross-border cooperation across the EUs external borders and the emergent EU border protection/security policy regime.
Cross-border cooperation (CBC) is an important factor in the economic development of peripheral regions and as such it requires that the actors involved can cross borders relatively freely. EU border control policies however now impose increasingly strict regulations on border crossing thus impeding CBC.
As a consequence of these tensions between the objectives of EU security and CBC policies, the overall EU effort to support CBC often does not compensate for the economic losses of border areas connected to the closing and/or strengthening of those borders.
It is not only the EU however that should be "blamed" for the fact that its border areas are becoming further deserted and economically depressed. One should not forget that urbanisation is a global trend and to a greater or lesser extent this phenomenon is taking place all over the world.
Look to Finland
Given the global urbanisation trend however, the development of peripheral areas significantly depends on national regional development policies. Moreover, positive European examples exist where despite the EU policy contradictions described above, border areas on the EUs external fringes nevertheless develop rapidly. A good example here is Finland which has managed to "sell" its Lapland to the rest of Europe, such that dozens of airplanes from the heart of Western Europe land everyday in the Finnish border area bringing tourists in winter and summer and promoting the economic development of the border area.
One such example of the promotion of EU external cross-border cooperation comes again from Finland. Finnish towns on the border with Russia such as Lappeenranta, according to the repre-sentatives of Lappeenranta municipality, recently experienced rapid economic growth thanks to the opening of the Finnish border to Russian tourists.
Since the Finnish government provides funds to support cross-border cooperation at the grassroots level, strong cross-border networks of representatives of schools, universities, municipalities etc., now exist. Such networks can usefully support the long–term economic, social and security-related development of the EUs external border area.
Involve the local actors
At the EU level, there is a need to establish horizontal coordination across different EU policies while at the national level the need remains to establish sound regional development policies promoting growth in peripheral areas. Involving local stakeholders in border areas and giving them more say in the elaboration and implementation of EU and national policies would be a very important resource in boosting economic develop-ment in these border regions.
Currently, most EU policies that concern border security or cross-border coope-ration are developed at the high political level with only representatives of national governments and EU .
Commission officials involved.
As a result local actors tasked with the implementation of these policies in the border areas face some difficulty in doing this because the methods and instruments of policy implementation have been developed with little consultation in respect of local actors. In short they do not fit local economic, governance or cultural conditions and significant tensions remain in respect of the implementation process.
One mechanism for involving local CBC actors in the development and imple-mentation of EU policies in respect of CBC exists in the form of institutions such as Euregios or Euroregions. Euregios are cross-border unions of local authorities and/or other organisations established to promote CBC. It is, however often the case that Euregios lack the necessary capacity and resources to develop their own policies in support of CBC or to successfully lobby their interests at either the European or national levels.
No official eagerness
Cross-border cooperation on the Estonian border with Russia is promoted by the European Union through implementation of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) aimed at "avoiding the emergence of new dividing lines between the enlarged EU and its neighbours".
For the period of 2007 – 2013, the overall budget of the programme supporting the cross-border cooperation between Estonia, Latvia and Russia (Pskov and Leningrad regions) is 746.3 million Euros.
Although the EU has pushed the development of CBC between Estonia and Russia, these two countries appear to have adopted EU policies in a rather lukewarm manner. Despite signing the EU – Russia agreement in May 2008 on the simpli-fication of the visa requirements regime, obtaining a Russian visa nevertheless remains a long drawn out procedure. In Estonia representatives of local authorities based along the border with Russia applied to receive Russian multi-entry visas through the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs already in 2006 nevertheless it still took around two years to obtain the visas.
On the other hand, according to respondents in St. Petersburg, obtaining visas for travel to Estonia is sometimes also difficult - there are often long lines at the Estonian Consulate to make an application for an Estonian visa. More-over, is it not always possible to get adequate information on the issuing visas via the telephone.
For those living in the border areas the border crossing is a very important issue. Before aligning with the Shengen-zone regulations, local people who had relatives or who regularly visited culturally important sites on the other side of the border, could cross with the special permission of the local authorities in cooperation with the foreign ministries concerned.
After Estonia aligned the Shengen agreement it was bi-laterally agreed between the Estonian and Russian authorities that 4000 free of charge visas would be issued for the local inhabitants of border area. In December 2008, the Estonian Ministry of Foreign Affairs however proposed to the government of the Russian Federation that they stop issuing free of charge visas to the residents of their border areas. Instead it was decided at the beginnig of 2009 that issuing nulti-entry visas in the border areas would continue.
By Dr Gulnara Roll, Senior Research Fellow of the University of Tartu Institute of Government and Policy; and Chairwoman of Board, Peipsi Center for Transboundary Cooperation; Tartu, Estonia
References
Berg, E. and Bowman, J. (2005) Cross-Border Cooperation in Focus: What are the Lessons to be Learned in the Estonian–Russian and Romanian–Moldovan Borderland? Tartu University Press, Estonia. See also: www.eudimensions.eu
Gorzelak, G. and Smetkowski, M. (2007) "Regional dynamics in Central and Eastern Europe", Paper presented at the Inter-national Conference "Regional Develop-ment in Central and Easter Europe", 20-22 September 2007, University of Warsaw, Poland.
Kramer, Hans. (2005) Cohesion and Growth in the EU: Is there a conflict between national and regional conver-gence? Working Paper. See: 0 www.tuwien.ac.at
Stefan Batory Foundation (2008) Gateways to Europe: Checkpoints on the EU External Land Border. Warsaw: Stefan Batory Foundation.
* The 2004 EU enlargement included Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania and Poland while the 2007 enlargement brought in Bulgaria and Romania. At the moment of accession an official Eurostat projection put the GDP of Latvia at 52%, Lithuania at 62 %, Estonia at 68 %, Poland at 95%; Bulgaria at 39 % and Romania at 41% of the EU average.