The author is looking for a solution to the permanent pollution of the second largest tributary of the Danube, namely the River Tisza. Every year, the floods bring along more than 100 tons of ...household waste from Ukraine to Hungary due to the underdeveloped and sometimes missing waste management system. The complexity of the situation necessitates the involvement of experts and actors of different tiers of government and different sectors. The author makes a proposal on the setting up of a three-layered platform following the multi-level governance model of the EU in order to achieve the sustainable development goals on water.
There are numerous examples of cross-border regions in Europe, which are regions not properly demarcated by national borders. One of the main driving forces of the European Union is to turn the ...dividing borders into connecting borders by strengthening the cohesion between states and regions, thus, encouraging regions to remedy the existing ethnic and cultural fragmentation by increasing the intensity and number of cross-border contacts. Our research focuses on proving that, in symbolic places, such as the cross-border area of Komárom and Komárno, the cultural values, monuments, and heritage sites are the strongest attraction factors for nationality-based cultural tourism. To support our hypothesis, we conducted an empirical survey within the framework of the H2020 SPOT (Social and Innovative Platform on Cultural Tourism and its potential towards deepening Europeanisation) in the cross-border region of Komárom and Komárno. The evaluation concentrated on four aspects of cultural tourism: the nature of cultural tourism in the area, the resident and visitor perceptions of the cultural tourism offerings, opportunities to increase cross-border collaboration, and options to improve the cultural tourism offerings of the area. Our results show that, although there is a great potential in the cross-border tourist destination of Komárom–Komárno, the integration of the (once united) two towns is advancing very slowly, which can be witnessed in the weaknesses of tourism integration as well.
The beginning of 2020 saw the global spreading of the COVID-19 pandemic, leading to a systematic closure of national borders across the world, which we refer to as the 'covidfencing' panorama. As ...expected, in Europe, where close to two million commuters cross national borders on a daily basis to work, this new reality has provoked significant setbacks to their lives. Based on evidence already available from several sources, this article presents some of the main impacts of the covidfencing process in the European cross-border (CB) areas. It does so by relating this process to the components of a proposed deterritorialism conceptual framework. In essence, it was possible to conclude that social related components like the sharing of health facilities and the need to work across borders show the existence of a high degree of deterritorialism in several parts of Europe. Nevertheless, more integration and deterritorialism is required everywhere, and simultaneously at the social, economic, physical and institutional levels. Crucially, covidfencing has highlighted the need for improving cross-border cooperation (CBC) with a view to mitigating persistent CB barriers and European integration processes.
Understood in some conceptual analysis as a pillar of territorial cohesion and due to its critical role in promoting territorial integration, territorial cooperation is often presented as one of the ...major positive achievements of European Union (EU) Cohesion Policy. In this context, this article proposes a conceptual framework to assess the contribution of the European Territorial Cooperation process, including the beyond-funding support from the Border Focal Point, to the ultimate goal of EU Cohesion Policy: territorial cohesion. For that, expertise from the leaders of European cross-border associations is used, as well as European Commission officials.
Recenzió. Benedek József – Nevelős Gábor (szerk.): Átfogó ökológia. Párbeszéd hit és tudomány között a Laudato si’ enciklika jegyében. JTMR Faludi Ferenc Jezsuita Akadémia – Jezsuita Kiadó, Budapest, ...2022.
The COVID-19 pandemic has generated unharmonised measures on behalf of the national governments without communicating with the local actors of the border areas, the representatives of the existing ...cross-border structures included. Against the conclusions of several studies discussing the topic, the author claims that, notwithstanding a few exceptions, the cross-border structures established so far all over Europe were not involved in the management of the extreme situation. Instead, these were the interpersonal contacts of border citizens and informal channels through which derogations of strict measures were achieved at the regional and national governments. The author finds the reason of this phenomenon in the ‘paradox of representation’ meaning the controversial procedure through which border areas gradually obtain the legal entity status but they lose their societal basis. To illustrate this procedure, the study refers to three communities of experts of network governance, and, through their theoretical models, it arguments that in parallel with the institutionalisation of crossborder cooperation, its participative aspects gradually weaken. The COVID-19 pandemic clearly showed in practice, how this process stabilised the territorial representation status of the cross-border structures while it emptied the participative platforms of the citizens therein.
The present study gives an overview of the de-bordering processes around Hungary that have taken place during the last 30 years and their impacts upon cross-border relationships and cooperation in ...both economic and social terms. A synthesis is provided on some of the examples of Hungarian innovation in cross-border cooperation as well as on recent developments stemming from the border closures during the pandemic.
The COVID-19 pandemic has changed the conditions of normal life in many aspects. However, it most impacted the life of people around national borders. What is more, while in other regions, after the ...successful vaccination campaigns, life begins to return normal, the borderlands still display signs of the effect of the pandemic, what we could call post-COVID symptoms. The study points out the symptoms which seem likely to stay with us for a long time and formulates recommendations for treatment.
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