During the recent years, attention paid to the obstacles stemming from the lack of legal harmonisation in the EU has been increasing. Although, the scope of acquis communautaire permanently broadens and the new regulations are included in the national legislation, experiences show that due to the differences between the national administrative systems and the legal background numerous legal obstacles make difficult the border citizens’ everyday lives and the success of cross-border cooperation.

In Hungary, CESCI implemented the first Legal accessibility project, in 2016, with the support of the Ministry of Justice. The project was successfully accomplished: the CESCI team unfolded the background of 39 legal-administrative obstacle and made recommendations on their solution, based on 10 stakeholder workshops, more than 30 interviews, a compilation of European best practices and the analysis of nearly 250 legal documents. The documentation of nearly 600 pages has prioritised four fields of interest (namely: cross-border mobility, health care, cross-border labour mobility and short supply chains – local products) and discussed also two horizontal issues which may facilitate the systematic (non ad-hoc) management of obstacles: one was about the potential institutional background of legal accessibiliity, while the other addressed the elimination of lack of information.

Since the completion of the first project, the Ministry of Justice has been supporting CESCI’s activities dealing with the obstacles and their elimination, every year. Within the framework of the milestones of the initiative, several sectoral legal and administrative challenges have been identified, and proposals have been made in order to provide solutions therefor, from cross-border movement of ambulance cars, through cross-border retail of local products to information provision facilitating the management of everyday problems. Apart from the concrete legal challenges, CESCI has also been working on the development of mechanisms and solutions which make the occurance and resolution of similar obstacles manageable.

In 2018 and 2019, with the support of the International Visegrad Fund and with the involvement of the experts of the four countries, a V4 level project aiming to develop a joint mechanism for the elimination of legal obstacles between the partner countries, was implemented. The four countries’ experts used the model of the Freedom of Movement Council of the Nordic Council of Ministers as a basis for a proposal targeting the establishment of a platform adapted to the legislative procedures and economic-social-political circumstances of the Visegrad countries.

Within the framework of the 2021 Legal accessibility project, CESCI plans to organise a forum and international conference in the autumn of 2021, under the umbrella of the Hungarian V4 presidency. The main aim of the event is to popularise both the systematic analysis and elimination of border obstacles among the Visegrad countries, and the relevant EU policy initiatives taken in this field.