Today, Serbia’s Minister of European Integration, Tanja Miščević, stated that cross-border cooperation was a powerful tool by which ordinary citizens demonstrated to their countries that solutions were within reach.
“It seems that people on the ground are often much wiser than the states themselves in finding answers to challenges”, Miščević remarked at the opening of the event, “A Powerful Step Toward European Integration: Solving Cross-Border Obstacles”.
As an example, she highlighted a project underway in Pirot in collaboration with Bulgaria, demonstrating that ordinary people had no issues cooperating across the border with a neighbouring country that, as a member of the European Union, could raise certain issues.
“Cross-border projects with Hungary, Croatia, or Romania, which are being successfully implemented, also represent a powerful means of overcoming potential conflicts by addressing daily issues that matter to citizens”, Tanja Miščević noted.
“One of these issues is small border traffic with neighbouring countries that have joined the Schengen Area, which, in the future, will be relevant with Romania and Bulgaria – how to overcome the concrete challenge of bridge construction through cross-border cooperation”, said Tanja Miščević
She added that the b-solutions initiative aims to find solutions for legal and technical barriers to enhance cross-border cooperation.
“This initiative originates from the EU’s Directorate-General for Regional and Urban Policy, with the main goal of improving solutions for cross-border cooperation that face administrative and legal challenges”, Miščević noted.
Secretary General of the Association of European Border Regions Martín Guillermo Ramírez pointed out that people living near borders understood better than anyone the importance of good cooperation with neighbours.
“This is what we want to develop; let us propose solutions”, he said, stressing that that must be done “hand in hand” with national governments.
He assessed that the process was promising in Serbia and that there was renewed energy for solutions in the field of cross-border cooperation, with a wider scope of projects.
Source: Fonet
