Report on CESCI’s General Assembly

Every year, the most important item on the agenda is the report on the previous year and the adoption of the public benefit report, which was carried out smoothly again. In his remarks on the past year, Secretary General Gyula Ocskay stressed that the organisation’s work has been hindered by the pandemic situation, the closure of borders by national governments and by the general negative atmosphere regarding the issues concerning the border areas.

The second item on the agenda was to hold elections due to the expiry of the terms of office of certain office holders. In the process, Dr. Tamás Tóth, President, Dr. Zsuzsanna Fejes, Vice-President and István Szabó, full member of the Board were all re-elected, while Dr. János Rechnitzer, former head of Institute at the Széchenyi István University in Győr, replaced Dr. Peter Kubičko (who did not take up another term of office).

Work planned for this year typically involves the continuation of work already started as part of the new planning cycle. In addition, regarding policy contribution, the aim is to continue the work on legal accessibility through the project supported by the Visegrad Fund and initiated in cooperation with the Uzhhorod National University and the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, as well as through the continuation and relaunch of the processes in Oradea and Szentgotthárd. Besides the publication of the Cross-border Review yearbook, the association will continue to support the publication efforts of its staff this year too.

The management has planned a stable budget for the implementation of the working plans, the main elements of which (income and expenditure rows) were presented in detail by Director Mátyás Jaschitz.

The association strives to expand its international network in 2021. Thus, the General Assembly approved of joining the ISOCARP, EuRegha, Regional Studies Association and The Western Balkans Network on Territorial Governance.

The last item on the agenda was the approval with retroactive effect of the Rules of Procedure adopted on 26 November at the constitutive session of the Supervisory Board which was re-elected in 2020.

Under the “Other” agenda item, the Secretary General outlined the steps taken within the framework of the European Cross-Border Citizens’ Alliance, including a resolution on the future of cross-border cooperation soon to be adopted by the European Committee of the Regions. The founding members of the Alliance (the Association of European Border Regions, AEBR, MOT and CESCI) have been actively involved in the preparation of the resolution.