European border cities as cross-border cooperation engines

Abstract

A general research on the works related to the European border cities reveals the fact that scholars do not so frequently approach this matter. One of these very rare sources, that of Decoville, Durand and Feltgen2 considers the border cities from a new and very intersting perspective for the former communist countries: that of de-marginalisation of the border urban areas, of an upgrading of the status of peripheral regions, and, in the end, of the dynamisation of their economic and cultural life by their very easy to establish external relations in the framework of the process of cross-border cooperation. In the context of the greater consideration allotted to the problem of borders and cross-border cooperation in the EU, consecrating an entire issue of Eurolimes to the role of the border cities could be considered as an act of reparation to these urban areas, to their ethnic diversity, multicultural sophistication, political role in key situations, or economical potential for their communities and even region or country.