BorderLabs CE – Partner meeting and thematic workshop in the European Capital of Culture
BorderLabs + BorderLabs + Policy-making + Szakpolitika | 03 November 2025
BorderLabs CE – Partner meeting and thematic workshop in the European Capital of Culture
BorderLabs + BorderLabs + Policy-making + Szakpolitika | 03 November 2025
The partners of the BorderLabs CE project convened in Gorizia on the 21st and 22nd of October. This year, the Italian town (established in 1001) is the European Capital of Culture with its Slovenian twin town, Nova Gorica (established in 1947), hosting many events. The partners discussed the actual tasks of the project and exchanged experiences on the topic of cross-border participatory governance.
The BorderLabs CE project, co-financed by the Central Europe Transnational Interreg Programme, aims at diminishing the separating effects of the administrative borders in Central Europe, through piloting, testing and disseminating solutions for cross-border integrated planning, cross-border participatory governance, and the management of cross-border legal obstacles. Each topic is discussed at dedicated thematic workshops. The second workshop, held on 22 October in the former Provincial Palace, addressed the governance aspect. The event started with the introduction of the theoretical framework.
Daniele del Bianco, director of the Institute of International Sociology of Gorizia (ISIG), which previously identified 75 different methods for effective citizens’ participation, gave a comprehensive overview of participatory and deliberative democracy, where participation is considered an engine of legitimacy. He also pointed out the difficulties the agents may face when involving citizens in decision-making processes.
Krisztina Keresztély, expert of the Comparative Research Network based in Berlin, summarised various methods facilitating participatory governance, from preparation, through implementation, to action research. Ulrich Peter, a researcher at the University of Potsdam, concentrated on the cross-border aspects of the topic. In his opinion, the biggest challenge is to make cross-border structures visible: the border citizens are not aware of the existence of such structures, while decision-makers usually neglect ideas reaching beyond the national confines. Through the presentation of a model project, the speaker identified pragmatic methods to engage citizens in cross-border activities.
In the second panel, good practices were shared. Irene Covi, Programme Officer of the Interreg Italy-Austria Managing Authority, presented online the innovative cross-border CLLD (community-led local development) tool applied in four regions of the programming area. One of these CLLD initiatives was introduced in detail by the project manager, Friedrich Veider. The HEurOpen Cross-Border CLLD integrates three (Hermagor, Euroleader, and Open) LEADER LAGs (Local Action Groups), and provides support for cross-border initiatives according to the LEADER methodology, with broad participation. The local actors are involved in project design through thematic focus groups.
Nicole Zambanini, project manager of the Tyrol South-Tyrol Trentino EGTC, spoke about the first European cross-border Citizens’ Council , which is a new body of the EGTC incorporated in its Statutes. The grouping published a call in 2022 for inviting ordinary citizens to future design workshops in three municipalities. The 10 participants for each workshop were selected according to sociological factors, and they had the opportunity to formulate recommendations for the border area. The Board of the EGTC already adopted one of these recommendations: the Euroregion ticket will enable citizens to use the public transport means without limitation within the EGTC.
The third panel was dedicated to the presentations of the PILOT partners of the BorderLabs CE project. The experts of the EGTC GO (Giulio Selvazzo and Mojca Stubelj) presented the participatory aspects of the European Capital of Culture (ECoC) project, from the web application to the cross-border youth group and the joint events of the Italian and Slovenian artists. Through the small project fund, the EGTC GO has already supported 56 ECoC projects targeting different societal groups in the border area.
Frankfurt/Oder and Słubice have long-lasting experience with citizens’ participation, under various formats. The project manager, Sören Bollmann, has been involved in these activities since 2009, when the double cities organised the Future Conference involving more than 100 participants from the two sides of the border to design their common future. In 2020, a new development vision was launched with the assistance of an advisory board, involving different interest groups. Further initiatives include the citizens’ picnic (collection of cooperation ideas from the citizens), the month of political and democratic education (sharing expertise in topics such as tolerance) and the citizens’ dialogue forum organised within the framework of the BorderLabs CE project. The last one is to be organised in the two EGTCs as well.
The most effective tools of the Neisse-Nysa-Nisa Euroregion to engage citizens are the three cross-border small project funds (SPF) at the trilateral border area. As Pavel Branda, the president of Euroregion Nisa association, explained in his online presentation, only through the Czech-German SPF they have managed to involve more than 160,000 people (20% of the region) in cross-border activities through more than 1000 small-scale projects.
Péter Nagy, the director of Ister-Granum EGTC, focused on the participatory activities carried out within the BorderLabs CE project. Their pilot revolves around the cross-border retail of local products. Accordingly, the EGTC involved the local citizens in an online survey on their needs and expectations related to local products. They received more than 300 responses, which will lay the basis for the solution to be developed. Another cohort is represented by the local producers, local market operators, shopping communities and local municipalities involved in the work of the regional stakeholder group.
Katja Rosner, programme manager of Upper Austria, also presented the methods of citizens’ involvement in their pilot targeting cross-border legal obstacles. The partner used the Padlet through which regional stakeholders could contribute to the subjects presented, which were discussed at the regional kick-off events afterwards. During the project, the focus of obstacle management has been narrowed to cross-border labour mobility along the Austrian-Bavarian and forestry at the Austrian-Czech borders. The first information forum for cross-border commuters is scheduled for November.
The workshop revealed various potential forms and methods of citizens’ participation, its difficulties and challenges and the added value of participatory processes in local and regional development and governance.
On the day preceding the workshop, the project partners held a meeting to discuss the achievements of the pilots and the next steps, including the study tours scheduled for next spring to Basel, Maastricht, and Copenhagen. In the afternoon, the participants visited the new cycle bridge overarching the River Isonzo/Soča, the EPIC centre renovated during the ECoC program to give space for events and a new exhibition on the border, and the European square formerly divided by the border fence, which has been revitalised by the EGTC GO within the framework of a cross-border integrated territorial investment (ITI) supported by the two governments.
On the following day, the Mitteleuropa Association organised the third forum of Central European twin cities. The first panel was dedicated to cross-border health. Gyula Ocskay, secretary general of CESCI, gave an overview of exemplary initiatives in the subject and moderated the panel involving Xavier Connill, director of the French-Catalan Cerdanya EGTC managing a cross-border hospital, and Ezio Benedetti, project coordinator of EGTC GO, responsible for cross-border health projects. During the debate, Béla Keszegh, mayor of Komárno, highlighted the importance of uniting the efforts for the development of cross-border health services.
The European Capital of Culture title will be handed over in December to Oulu (Finland) and Trenčín (Slovakia), when the extremely rich series of events in Gorizia and Nova Gorica will come to an end. Still, it is worth visiting the exemplary cross-border region after the closure of the ECoC program.
