Description
Key challenges: Insufficient CB contact, interaction and infrastructure between people, authorities and companies; Need for more knowledge about the situation in border regions and CB affairs. The overall objective is to enhance the level of knowledge and understanding of cross-border processes between BG and its neighbouring countries; promoting good neighbourly relations, fostering stability, security and prosperity in the mutual interest of all countries concerned, and encouraging their sustainable development. Data on borderland developments and cross-border cooperation is assembled and made available in CBC data center, etc. The BAR will be represented in the project’s different working groups and together with the PP facilitate coordination between the different project components; The project partnership will be of great importance for the exchange of experience and best practices and development of а CBC data centre.
Summary of project results
During the project there were achieved the following overall outcomes: • Experience and best practices shared between organizations dealing with territorial cooperation • Enhanced public awareness of the state of cross-border communities relations • A network of national statistic institutes established • Cross-border data journalism courses developed and implemented • The data on CBC and borderland developments made more accessible with the establishment of a Data Centre and making it more compelling applying of modern approaches for data visualizations; • Developed data portal – website with regional statistics - demographic and business statistics, environment statistics for Serbia, Turkey, Macedonia and partially
Summary of bilateral results
The Norwegian Barents Secretariat in cooperation with the Institute of Stability and Development organized the 5th Forum on Cross-Border Cooperation in Nikel (Russian Federation) and Kirkenes (Kingdom Norway) on the 6th and 7th of November 2014. The event was held on both sides of the Schengen border, partly in Russia, partly in Norway with the participation of Murmansk regional administration, as well as with local municipal authorities from the cross-border region. Various topics among which: Local border traffic, Youth, Entrepreneurship and Culture in the border regions will be subject of discussions. The Forum provided a unique opportunity for establishment and development of firm links between programme bodies and institutions involved in the cross-border cooperation in a wider Europe. The event is of great benefit for the Ministry of Regional Development representatives, working in the field of cross-border cooperation, because it provided them with good examples and best practices for tackling with similar challenges in the cross-border regions. The forum was also an occasion for sharing knowledge with other institutions implementing projects for developing of regional cross-border data centers, which contributed for the smooth implementation of the pre-defined project “Bulgarian Border Dialogues”, managed by DG TCM. This Forum increased cooperation between countries’ institutions and organizations, at programme and project level and it was an opportunity for sharing the experience, knowledge, know-how and best practices in the field of cross-border cooperation.