DETUROPE - The Central European Journal of Regional Development and Tourism 2012, 4(2):71-97 | DOI: 10.32725/det.2012.013
Developing the cross-border regions is a preferential area of the European Union's regional policy, and it has so far provided several sources for this purpose (PHARE, Interreg, Cross-border Co-operation Programmes).
In our present research, we examine how the people polled think the forms of cross-border co-operation - especially in the fields of environmental protection, tourism, local economy and commerce - contribute to the success of a region made up of a Hungarian, an Austrian and a Slovenian small region. The main areas of development are environmental protection and tourism which are supported in the period of 2007-2013, and - as experience shows - these are the two sectors where the most spectacular results can be reached in the shortest term possible.
We have examined the success and achievements of the region from the point of view of economic system, culture of innovation, regional availability, and preparedness of labour force, decision centres, social structure and cohesion.
During the empirical research, we questioned three small regions' municipal representatives as decision makers and representatives of local authority. The research sample involved municipal representatives of the minorities' (Slovenian, German, Roma), as well as the non-governmental organizations related to the fields examined.
The results of the research point out the accentuated role of the factors of connection that they play in the process of organising and realising trans-border co-operations, as well as in that of building a prospective trans-border region.
Published: July 31, 2012 Show citation
ACS | AIP | APA | ASA | Harvard | Chicago | Chicago Notes | IEEE | ISO690 | MLA | NLM | Turabian | Vancouver |
This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY 4.0), which permits use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original publication is properly cited. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.