KNOWLEDGE SHARING

Border citizens’ everyday life is rendered difficult by the proximity of the border, the inconveniences with the crossing, the legislative differences, the limited accessibility to services. Furthermore, for historical reasons, the mutual trust between the two border communities is usually very low, the development of cooperation is hindered by mutual suspicion and prejudices.

Based on our experiences, the shortages of information mean another barrier: ’What are we allowed to do there, what we are not? If we are enabled to act, how should we start? What are the frameworks of our activities? How can we be funded if we have a plan to act? What kind of experts do we need for cooperation? How could we have an access to these experts? How and where can our colleagues be trained so that they are enabled to coordinate cooperation?”

Local actors who are open to cross-border cooperation will face a mass of such questions. Since without them not only the direct regional cooperation is impossible but also the EU Cohesion Policy objectives are hard to be delivered, it is a key to provide these actors with as comprehensive and as reliable information as possible – in all fields their questions target.