Policy discourse on border regions is nearly always passionate, but rarely well informed. Mythology and anecdotes dominate, rather than hard data. Cross-border co-operation itself remains little understood. While longitudinal data exists on the state of cross-border co-operation in many frontier regions of Europe, it is not easily available to the full range of stakeholders, nor is it presented in an interactive visual format that aids comparative analysis for identifying positive trends or emerging hotspots. Moreover, most qualitative data from border regions is ad hoc in character, making comparative and longitudinal analysis all but impossible.
Local and international stakeholders alike would be better able to know the true condition of cross-border co-operation, and to place that changing context over time and relative to other frontier regions if easily available quantitative and qualitative comparative data were collected, compiled, and presented on-line via accessible and interactive visualizations.
Mobilization for policy change flows naturally when passion is matched with information.
This project tests a concept for a synthetic index of cross-border co-operation between regions located on both sides of Europe’s East-West frontiers using examples of a few border areas in Europe. The three pilot frontiers targeted are: the Barents Region, Kaliningrad/Poland, and Ukraine/Slovakia.
The Cross-Border Co-operation Index, once developed, would indicate the level of cross-border co-operation, point to good practices, but also serve as a tool for “early warning” of deteriorating cross-border situations that need attention from the conflict prevention perspective. Specifically, the project will look at whether the conceived methodology for the CBC Index is operational or if it needs refinement and in which areas. The project will also show whether there is enough distinction between the regions to be examined and what categories should deserve greater weight in constructing the CBC Index.
