European Studies Research in the Sphere of Border and Cross – [630213]

15

European Studies Research in the Sphere of Border and Cross –
Border Cooperation Development with Special Overview at the
EU’s Eastern Borders wit h Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine

Ioan HORGA*

Abstract. This paper we will try to give answers to the following q uestions: which
was the path towards European Studies approach of the CBC ? Is there in the field of
European Studies a sufficient background to talk about a specific CBC approach? Which
is the role of research in the field of CBC at the Eastern border of E U in the development
of European Studies?

Keywords: European Studies, Cross -Border Cooperation studies, Border Studies,
EU‟ Eastern Borders, Central and Eastern European Countries, EU‟s Neighbourhood
Countries

The issue Borders and Cross -Border Cooperati on, although closely linked to the
process of European integration, has been the subject of study and research in the field of
the European Studies only in the last two decades. It seems paradoxical that, although the
problems of borders and CBC were born at the same time with the emergence of the first
organizations of the process of European construction – The Coal and Steel Organization,
the European Economic Community – because it had to answer to the problems of
fluidizing the commercial, financial and human mobility, it was the research object of
some areas of study clearly outlined from the theoretical point of view, especially of
political geography. In fact, to date, the most important theorists of the problems of border
and CBC are the geographers.
In a study from the beginning of the 2000, Henk van Houtum1, speaking about the
role of European Geographical research in the Borders and Regional Borders Area
considered that these focused in particular on the flow approach, cross -border cooperation
approach and the people approach2.
Although it would be desirable to pay importance in this study to the issue of
flows and population at the Eastern border of European Union, considering the space
allocated and the need to respond to the proposed title, w e will focus only to the problem
of how the CBC is reflected at this border within the framework of European Studies. In
approaching the Cross -Border Cooperation we will start from the definition given to this
activity by the European Association of Border Regions, according to which ―CBC
involves direct neighbourly cooperation in all areas of life between regional and local

* Dean of the Faculty of History, Political Science, International Relations and Sciences of
Communication, University of Oradea. E -mail: [anonimizat].
1 Henk van Houtum, ―An Overview of European Regional Research on Border and Regional
Borders,‖ Journal of Borderland Studies XV, no. 1 (2000): 56 –83.
2 Ibid., 59.

16
authorities along the border and involving all actors‖3. Taking into account the aspects
mentioned above, in this paper we will try to give answers to the following questions:
which was the path towards European Studies approach of the CBC? Is there in the field
of European Studies a sufficient background to talk about a specific CBC approach?
Which is the role of research in the field o f CBC at the Eastern border of EU in the
development of European Studies?

1. The Evolution of Borders and CBC approaches towards an integration
into the specific research area of European Studies
Before getting into the issues of evolution of Borders and CBC approaches
towards the specific research area of European Studies research, we have to discuss a little
bit about the way in which the reflection about border issues has been structured, from the
perspective bordering -debordering and rebordering, consider ing a Brownian type of
movement that implies the content of the three concepts.
First of all, Bordering – is a social construction of relationships between actors
and institutions in the borderland. It can be defined as the everyday construction of
borders , for example through political discourses and institutions, media representations,
school textbooks, stereotypes and everyday forms of transnationalism4.
Secondly, Debordering – indicate that not only States but citizens, communities
and regions have chosen to open new avenues of communication with their neighbours
across national boundaries5.
Finally, Rebordering – indicate the legitimacy to close geographical frontiers, as
well as a ‗national‘ common interest which requires to support an unequal
international distribution o f powe r6.
It is also necessary to discuss as well about the way in which the reflection on the
cross -border cooperation has been structured which, we must say, has an evolution closely
related to the two moments that the border issues are passing through. On the one hand,
reflections about CBC meant not only the transition from every day problems of a local
nature to points of international law, but also a r ange from bottom -up initiatives to top –
down EU strategies sustained by initiatives and funding programmes.
On the other side, CBC Studies have been for a long time not only part of
contemporary border studies, but also continuity and change in scientific t hought as well
as innumerable contributions to the conceptualization of social space and its workings.
Cross -border co -operation highlighted how borderlands situations are exploited, in which
way they were using borders as a resource for economic and cultu ral exchange and how
they were building political coalitions for regional development purposes7.

3 ―Institutional Aspects of Cross -Border Cooperation,‖ March 1999, accessed May 13, 2019,
https://www.aebr.eu/files/publications/inst_asp_99.en.pdf.
4 Anssi Paasi, ―Boundaries as Social Pro cesses: Territoriality in the W orld of Flows,‖ Geopolitics
3, no. 1 (1998): 69 –88.
5 James W. Scott, ―Bordering, Border Politics and Cross -Border Cooperation in Europe,‖ in
Neighbourhood Policy and the Construction of the European External Borders , ed. Filippo
Celata and Raffaella Coletti ( Springer International Publishing Switzerland, 2015), 27–44.
6 Liliana Suárez, ― The Mediterranean Rebordering: An Anthropological Perspective from Southern
Spain,‖ Quaderns de l‟Institut Catala d‟Antropologa 11 (1997).
7 Gabriel Popescu, ―The Conflicting Logics of Cross -Border Reterritorialization: Geopolitics of
Euroregions in Eastern Europe,‖ Political Geography 27, no. 4 (2008): 418−438 ; Gabriel
Popescu, Bordering and Ordering the Twenty -First Century: Understanding Borders (Plymouth
Rowman & Littlefield Publishers, 2012).

17
In the table below are transposed several of the important steps in the process of
evolution of the cross -border cooperation and the type of theoretical studie s that
approached them:

Years CBC Events Type of Theoretical Studies and Best
Practices
1950‘s On Scandinavian, Dutch/German and
French/German/Swiss borders was
developed CBC initiatives Historical, Geographical, Socio –
Economics Approaches
1970‘s The European Spatial Planning
Ministerial Conference (CEMAT) of
Council of Europe promote the first
strategy in the CBC Political Approaches
1980 Madrid Outline Convention on
Transfrontier Cooperation Provide Law model inter -state agreements
(International/Eu ropean Law Approaches
1990 The European Commission launched
the Community Initiative INTERREG,
which can be used by public
authorities to apply for European
funding Multidisciplinary Approaches in CBC
1994 –2000 Establishment of the Phare CBC Affirmation of European Studies
2000–2006 EU Enlargement Affirmation of European Studies in CBC
as Interdisciplinary Studies
2006 Launching of the European
Neighbourhood Policy European Studies in CBC as
Multidisciplinary Perspectives (EU
Political and Administrative Studies in
CBC; EU Economic Studies in CBC; EU
Law Studies in CBC, EU Historical
Studies in CBC)
2010 –2015 Succession of crises (economical –
financial, Ukraine, refugees , etc.) New European Studies in CBC (EU
Regional Comparative Studies, EU
Diplomatic and Security Studies in CBC,
EU Intercultural Dialogue Studies in CBC;
EU Communication Studies in CBC)

From the analysis of the table above we notice three periods in the evolution of
the reflection on borders and Cross Border Cooperation.
The first period is from the sixties to the fall of the Iron Curtain, called CBC in the
―Single European Market‖8 or a CBC in ―Europe without Frontiers‖9. This period is
dominated by the approaches of the geographers10.
With the First European Conference of Ministers responsible for Regional
Planning, in Bonn from 9 –11 of September, 1970, when was put on government
responsibility in the field of global spatial planning of national territory and on the

8 van Houtum, 63.
9 Liam O‘Down and Thomas Wilson, ―F rontiers of Sovereignty in the N ew Europe,‖ in Borders,
Nations and States: F rontiers of Sovereignty in the N ew Europe , ed. Liam O‘Down and Thoma s
Wilson (Aldershot: Avebury, 1996), 1 –18.
10 van Houtum, 63.

18
European dimension of spatial planning11, we begin to have in the reflection market upon
CBC, approaches that come from the sphere of the political sciences12, although the
geographers‘ reflection in this matter overlaps or even substitutes sometimes this new
approach, by affirming the field of political geography. In the conference papers it is
considered that ―One of the essential political tasks,‖ planning should be done via the
development of less advanced areas, the economic integration of natural areas divided by
borders13.
The adoption of Madrid Outline Conven tion on Transfrontier Cooperation , aimed
at encouraging and facilitating the conclusion of cross -border agreements between local
and regional authorities within the scope of their respective powers. Such agreements
cover regional development, environmental protection, the improvement of public
services etc., and may include the setting up of transfrontier associations or consortia of
local authorities14. Through this, the issue of cross -border cooperation has been transposed
into legal and constitutional sys tems of the Council of Europe and has to be adopted by all
the member states. Due to the fact that a CBC Law model inter -state agreements regarding
CBC was promoted, this area comes under the influence of International/European Law,
although this was done a little bit later15.
With the launch of the INTERREG Community Initiative in the early 1990, the
public authorities could apply for European funding to support cross -border cooperation
projects, which ensures the consistency and coherence of cross -border c ooperation
activities.
We are witnessing an exponential multiplication of the number of CBC funding
programmes16. At the same time with the practical evolution, we can easily observe,
analysing the specialized literature, that not only an extension of the reflection of this
phenomenon takes place, but also an approach from a multidisciplinary perspective
(geographic al, historical, sociological, law, political sciences, anthropological, etc.). We
can assert on this basis that we enter in the second period of reflection about the meaning
of European Borders and of Cross -Border C ooperation.
This is also the period of co nceptualization and reconceptual ization of the notion
of Cross -Border Cooperation. For example, authorized geographers say that cross -border
cooperation is a more specific dimension of the broader phenomenon of ―cross -border
regionalism‖17. From a law persp ective, Nicolas Levrat stressed the ambiguities in the
terminology of cross -border cooperation18, which was used in the official documents.
Thus, the concepts used were of transborder cooperation , which meant cooperation
between bordering territories: Madri d framework agreement 1980; Additional protocol;

11 Council of Europe, ―1st Conference of the Council of Europe of Ministers Responsible for Spatial
Planning (CEMAT),‖ accessed September 5, 2019, https://www.coe.int/en/web/conference –
ministers -spatial -planning/1st -cemat.
12 Malcolm Anderson, Frontiers. Territory and S tate Formation in the Modern World (Cambridge:
Polity Press, 1997).
13 Council of Europe, ―1st Conference of the Council.‖
14 Ibid.
15 Nicolas Levrat, Le droit applicable aux accords de coopération transfrontière entre collectivités
publiques infra -étatiques (Paris: PUF, 1994).
16 van Houtum, 63.
17 James Scott, ―Euroregions, Governance, and Transborder Cooperation within the EU,‖ in
Borders, Regions and People , ed. Martin Van Der Velde an d Henk Van Houtum (London: Pion,
2000), 104 –115.
18 Levrat, 143.

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European programs INTERREG, INTERREG IIA, INTERREG IIIA); ― inter -territorial
cooperation ‖ (Protocol n. 2); ― transnational cooperation ‖ (INTERREG II C; INTERREG
III B); ― cross -border cooperation ‖ (art. 307.1, TFEU); ― interregional cooperation ‖
(INTERREG IIIC)19. The term Cross -Border C ooperation (CBC) is imposed with
authority, which is modelled by the contribution of the researchers from other fields.
With the change of the European paradigm, from an economic union represented
by the Common Market, to a common entity with an increasingly obvious political
dimension, the European Union, following the Maastricht Treaty (1992), the formalization
of the trajectory that the states in the Central and Eastern Europe h ad to meet, by the
adopting of the criteria from Copenhagen (1993), starting in 1994 the official start for the
process of accession of the ex -communist states is given.
From the perspective of theoretical reflection, besides the traditional approaches
from geography, political sciences, law, history, economy, one can observe that a new
type of reflection is required, which will get a curricular dimension in the universities of
Western Europe, and a shy one in Eastern and Central Europe, namely the discipli ne of
European Studies, which brings both a multidisciplinary, and an interdisciplinary
perspective20.
The process of association of these states (1994 –1996) and then the beginning of
the accession negotiations will bring the issue of the future of borders of these states with
the EU member states and also the issues of cross -border cooperation, especially after the
launching of special funding program for these states, PHARE program.
As it is easy to understand, the academic environment, especially in Weste rn
Europe sets the tone to increasingly complex reflections on the impact, role, and
efficiency but also on more controversial situations regarding borders and cross -border
cooperation. We are witnessing a veritable explosion of research and papers that pr opose
such topics in Western Europe. The evolution is so fast so that we have to deal, on the one
hand, with authors who shift their reflection perspective, from a multidisciplinary one (i.e.
geography, history, economy, etc.), to an interdisciplinary one, evolved in the vogue that
European Studies acquires. On the other side, in the context of traditionalist authors, or of
those who were converted by the spirit of the European Studies, young authors appear
who, in the year 2000, launch themselves as consec rated authors in the new field with
solid reflections about the status of the European Union borders in general, and CBC in
particular.
If, from a methodological point of view, it was easy for us to make a dissociation
between the first two periods, from t he same perspective, but taking into account the
previous considerations it will be very difficult for us to have a clear demarcation between
the second and third period. With the risks of rigor, however, we can sketch a beginning
of the third stage (with the completion of the extension and development of the reflection
related to the external borders of the EU, after 2006 –2007).
Returning to the second period, here are examples of several schools. First,
remember the British school with its subunits; the N orthern Irish school near the Center

19 Anna Margherita Russo, ―Globalization and Cross -Border Cooperation in EU Law: A
Transnational Research Agenda,‖ in Perspectives on Federalism (Compagnia di San Paulo
Torino) 4, no. 3 (2012): 11.
20 Ioan Horga and Mariana Buda, ―Analytical and Methodogical Framework of Research in
European and/or EU Studies Curriculum,‖ The Romanian Journal of International Relations and
European Studies 1, no. 1 (2012): 8.

20
for International Borders Research of Queen's University Belfast, with an
anthropological21, political22 and sociological23 foundation; the Scottish School of the
University of Edinburgh, which comes with a political and i nternational relations
perspective on borders24; The London School of Border Studies near Royal Holloway
University of London, represented by Chris Rumford's25 scientific work, is, in our opinion,

21 Hasting Donnan & Thomas M. Wilson, eds, Border Approaches: Anthropological Perspectives
on Frontiers (Laham; London: University Press of America, 1994); Hasting Donnan and Thomas
M. Wilson, Border Identities: Nation and S tate at International Frontiers (Cambridge :
Cambrid ge University Press, 1998); Dieter Haller, Hasting Donnan, Border and Borderlands: An
Anthropological Perspective (Copenhagen: Museum Tusculanum Press, Ethnologia Europea
30:2, 2000); Hasting Donnan, The Anthropology of Borders (Encyclopedia of Social Scie nces,
2001); Hasting Donnan, Thomas M. Wilson, Borders: Frontiers of Identity, Nation and State
(New York: Berg Books, 2001); Hasting Donnan, Border Cities and Town: Causes of Social
Exclusion in Peripheral Europe (2001); Hastin g Donnan, ―European States a nd T heir
Borderlands,‖ Focaal: European Journal of Anthropology , 2003 ; Hasting Donnan and Thomas
M. Wilson, eds, Culture and Power at the E dges of the State: National Support and Subversion in
European Borderlands (Frankfurt: Transaction Publishers and Lity of OuluIT Verlag, 2005);
James Anderson, Liam O'Dowd & Thomas M. Wilson, eds, Culture and Co -operation in
Europe's Borderlands (Amsterdam, New York: Rodopi , 2003). With this book the transition to
the field Europe an Studies is made.
22 James Anderson and Liam O‘Dowd, ― Borders, Border Regions and Territoriality: Contradictory
Meanings, Changing Significance,‖ Regional Studies, 33, n. 7 (1999): 593 –604; James Anderson,
Transnational Democracy: Political S pace and Bord ers Crossing (London: Taylor and Francis,
2002); Cathal Mc Call is the North -Irish whose researches on borders are placed in the field of
European Studies (Cathal Mc Call, ―From Barrier to Bridge: Reconfiguring the Irish Border after
Belfast Good Friday Ag reement,‖ Northern Ireland Legal Quarterly 53, no. 4 (2002): 479 –494;
Cathal Mc Call, ―European Union, Cross -Border Cooperation and Conflict Amelioration,‖ Space
and Polity 17, no. 2 (2013): 197 –216; Cathal Mc Call, The European Union and Peace B uilding:
The Cross -Border Cooperation (Basingstoke: Palgrave McMillan, 2014).
23 O‘Down and Wilson; Liam O‘ Down, ―The Changing of Significance of European Borders,‖
Regional and Federal Studies 12, no. 4 (2002): 13 –36; Liam O'Dowd, James Anderson, and
Thomas Wilson, eds, New Borders for a N ew Europe: Cross -Border Cooperation and
Governance (Taylor and Francis, 2003).
24 Malcolm Anderson, Frontiers: Territory and S tate Formation in the Modern World (Cambridge:
Polity Press; Oxf ord: Blackwell Publishers, 1996); Malcolm Anderson and E. Bort, The Frontiers
of the European Union (Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2001); Malcolm Anderson and Joanna Apap, New
European Border & S ecurity Cooperation: Promoting T rust in an Enlarged European Union
(Brussels: CEPS, 2002); Malcolm Anderson and J. Apap, Police an d Justice Co -operation and
the N ew European Border s (Hague, New York: Kluwer Law International, 2002).
25 Chis Rumford, ― Theorizing Borders,‖ European Journal of Social Theory 9, no. 2 (2006): 155 –
169; Chris Rumford, ― Rethinking European Spaces: Governance beyond Territoriality,‖ in
Comparative European Politics 4, no. 2 -3 (2006): 127 –140; Chris Rumford, ― Borders and
Rebordering,‖ in Europe and Asia: Towards a N ew Cosmopolitani sm, ed. Gerard Delanty
(London: Routledge, 2006); Chris Rumford, ― Does Europe Have Cosmopolitan Borders?‖
Globalizations 4, no. 3 (2007): 327 –339; Chris Rumford, ― Introduction: Citizens and Borderwork
in Europe,‖ in Space and Polity 12, no. 1 (2008): 1 –12; Chris Rumford, ― Where are Europe's
Borders?,‖ Political Geography 28, no. 2 (2009): 79 –89; Chris Rumford, Citizens and
Borderwork in Contemporary Europe (London: Routledge, 2009); Anthony Cooper and Chris
Rumford, ―Cosmopolitan Borders: Bordering as Connectivity,‖ in The Ashgate Research
Companion to Cosmopolitanism , ed. Maria Rovisco and Magdalena Nowicka (Farnham,
Burlington: Ashgate, 2011), 261 –276; Chris Rumford, ― Towards a Multiperspectival Study of

21
the first to analyse borders from the perspective of European Studies. This statement is
supported not only by the content of the mentioned studies but also by the fact that Chris
Rumford is a recognized theorist on the problem of the field of European Studies26.
Secondly, the Finnish school represented by the Kareli an Institute at the
University of Eastern Finland in Joensuu and the Department of Geography at the
University of Oulu, which offe rs not only an interdisciplinary perspective, but also the
most consistent perspective on the Eastern border of EU27 and cross -border cooperation
with Eastern European neighbours, especially with Russia28 is worth being mentioned.
Thirdly, we must mention the Italian school, represented by the activity of the
Institute of International Sociology of Gorizia, which has focused on var ied issues
regarding the European borders and cross -border cooperation (evaluation of cross -border
cooperation; designing institutional and cross -border services; formation of local
authorities for CBC; study of sustainable development of border cities)29. The studies
developed have a strong sociological footprint (through the remarkable activity of

Borders,‖ Geopolitics 17, no. 4 (2012): 887 –902; Chris Rumford, Cosmopolitan Borders
(Basingstoke: Palgrave, 2014).
26 Chris Rumford and Philomena Murray, ― Do We Need a Core Curriculum in European Union
Studies?‖ European Political Science 3, no. 1 (2003): 85 –92; Chris Rumford and Philomena
Murray, ― EU Studies and Teaching beyond Integration,‖ EUSA Review 16, no. 2 (2003): 11 –12;
Chris Rumford, Handbook of European Studies (London: Sage, 2009).
27 James Wesley Scott, ―Transboundary Governance in the Baltic Sea Region: Em erging Patterns,
Preliminary Results,‖ Regional and Federal Studies 12, no. 4 (2002): 135 –153; James Wesley
Scott, EU Enlargement, Region -Building and Shifting Borders of Inclusion and Exclusion
(Aldershot: Ashgate, 2006); Heikki Eskeline, Ilkka Liikanen, Jukka Oksa, eds, Curtains of Iron
and Gold. Reconstructing Borders and Scales of Interaction (Ashgate: Aldershot, 1999); J.W.
Scott, ―Bordering and Ordering the European Neighbourhood. A Critica l Perspective on EU
Territoriality and Geopolitics,‖ TRAMES A Journal of the Humanities and Social Sciences , 13,
no. 3 (2009): 232 –247; J.W. Scott, ―Borders, Border Studies and EU Enlargement,‖ in The
Ashgate Research Companion to Border Studies , ed. Doris Wastl -Walter (Farnham: Ashgate,
2011), 123 –142.
28 Ilkka Liikanen , ―Eure gio Karelia: A Model for Cross -Border Cooperation with Russia? ‖ in
Russian Regional Perspectives. Journal for Foreign and Security Policy 1 no. 3 (2004); Ilkka
Liikanen , ―New Neighbourhood and Cross -Border Region -Building: Identity Politics of CBC on
the Finnish -Russian Border,‖ Journal of Borderlands Studies 23, no. 3 (2008) : 19–38; Heikki
Eskelinen, Ilkka Liikanen, James W. Scott, eds, The EU -Russia Borderland: New Contex ts for
Regional Cooperation (London: Routledge, 2012); Anssi Paasi, Territories, Boundaries and
Consciousness: The Changing Geographies of the Finnish -Russian Border (London: John Wiley
& Sons, 19 96); Anssi Paasi, ―Europe as a S ocial Process and Discourse: Consi derations of P lace,
Boundaries and Identity,‖ European Urban and Regional Studies 8, no. 1 (2001): 7 –28; Anssi
Paasi and Eeva -Kaisa Prokkola, ―Territorial Dynamics, Cross -Border Work and Everyday Life in
the Finnish -Swedish B order‘,‖ Space and Polity 12, no. 1 (2008): 13–29; Anssi Paasi, ―A ‗Border
Theory‘: An Unattainable D ream or a Realistic aim for Border Scholars?‖ in A Research
Companion to Border Studies , ed. Doris Wastl -Walter (Aldershot: Ashgate, 2011), 11 –31; Milan
Bufon, Julian Minghi, and A nssi Paasi, eds, The N ew European Frontiers: Social and Spatial
(Re)-Integration Issues in Multicultural and Borders Regions (Newcastle: Cambridge Scholar
Publishing, 2014).
29 Istituto di Sociologia Internationale di Gorizia, ―Confini e Cooperazione transfrontal iera‖,
accessed September 10, 2019, https://isig.it/it/attivita/aree -di-ricerca/confini -e-cooperazione –
transfrontaliera/.

22
Raimondo Strassoldo30), but they have been permanently open to other fields, developing
a specific dimension to the field of European Studies in approaching CBC.31
Finally, the Dutch school is noted, especially through the activity of Nijmegen
Center for Border Research, which was established in 1998, being remarkable especially
through research in the fields: cross -border economic relationship32; border conflict; cr oss-
border spatial planning33, cross -border cooperation34, cross -border governance, cross –
border labour market; migration35; border mobility36.
Discussing the third period of the evolution of reflection, which we can perceive
as dominant after the accession of Central and Eastern European states to the EU and the
launch of the European Neighbourhood Policy, it is noted, on the one hand, by
strengthening the reflection of European Studies in CBC as Multidisciplinary Perspectives

30 Raimondo Strassoldo, From Barrier to Junction. Towards a Sociological Theory of the Borders
(Instituto di Sociologia Internazionale di Gorizia (ISIG), 1970); Raimondo Strassoldo, Confini e
regioni. Le potenziale di sviluppo e di pace delle periferie (Trieste: Lint, 1973); Raimondo
Strassoldo, ―Boundaries in the Sociological Theory: A Reassessment,‖ in Cooperation and
Conflict in the Border Area , ed. Raimondo Strassoldo and Giovanni Delli Zotti (Milano: Angeli,
1982): 245 –272; Raimondo Strassoldo, Giovanni Delli Zotti, eds, Cooperation and Conflict in the
Border Area (Milano: Angeli, 1982).
31 Antonio Gasparini, Le élite per la governance della cooperazione transfrontaliera (ISIG, 2008);
Antonio Gasparini, D. Del Bianco, L‟Europa Centrale dei confini. Governance della
cooperazione transfronaliera (ISIG, 2008); Istituto di Sociologia Internationale di Gorizia ,
Analysis and Planning for Cross -Border Co -operation in Central European Countries
(Strasbourg: Consiglio de Europa, 2010); Antonio Gasparini, D. Del Bianco, Strategies and
Euroregions for Cross -Border Co -operation in Balkan and Danube European Cou ntries. An
Analysis of Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats (ISIG, 2011); Cross -Border Co –
operation in Europe: A Comprehensive Overview (Strasbourg: Consiglio de Europa, 2011);
Daniele Del Bianco, C. Bianchizza, European Experience of Citizens‟ Participation in Cross –
Border Governance (ISIG, 2015).
32 Frans Boekema and Henk van Houtum, ― Cross -Border Networking in the Benelux,‖ in Régards
sur le Benelux (Brussels, 1994), 83 –97; Henk van Houtum, The Development of Cross -Border
Economic Relation s. A Theoretical and Empirical S tudy o f the Influence of the S tate Border on
the Development of Cross -Border Economic Relations between F irms in Border Regions of the
Netherlands and Belgium (Tilburg: CentER, 1998); Henk van Houtum, ―What is the Influence of
Borders on Economic Internationalisation?‖ in Understanding European Cross -Labour M arkets.
Issues in Economic Cross -Border Relations , ed. P. Gijsel, M. de Janssen, H. -J. Wenzel, and M.
Woltering (Marburg: Metropolis, 1999), 107 –141.
33 Henk van Houtum, Oliver Kramsch, Wolfgang Zierhofer, B/ordering Space (Aldershot: Ashgate,
2005); Mark Eker and Henk van Houtum, Borderland (Blauwdruk: Wageningen, 2013).
34 Martin Van der Velde and Henk van Houtum, eds, Borders, Regions and People (Volume in the
series of the British section of the European Regional Science Association) (London: PION,
2000).
35 Henk van Houtum, ―The Border between the Nomad and the Monad: Theorizing B/ordering and
Othering and Borderscaping‘,‖ Debating and Defining Borders: Philosophical and Theoretical
Perspectives , ed. Anthony Cooper and Søren Tinning (Abingdon, Oxford, New York: Routledge,
2019), 181 –194.
36 Ton van Naerssen and Martin van der Velde, Mobility and Migration Choice: Thresholds to
Crossing Borders (London: As hgate, 2015); Henk van Houtum and Ton van Naerssen,
―Bordering, Ordering and Othering,‖ Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie (TESG)
93, no. 2 (2002) : 125 –136; Henk van Houtum and Martin van der Velde, ―The P ower of Cross –
Border Labour Market I mmobility,‖ Tijdschrift voor Economische en Sociale Geografie (TESG)
95, no. 1 (2004): 100 –107.

23
(EU Political and Administrative Studies in CBC; EU Economic Studies in CBC; EU Law
Studies in CBC, EU Historical Studies in CBC), and, on the other hand, in the context of
the crisis series that the EU has gone through – the economic crisis, the Ukrainian crisis,
the refugee crisis, etc. –, are becoming obvious the so -called new approaches European
Studies in CBC (EU Regional Comparative Studies, EU Diplomatic and Security Studies
in the field of CBC, EU Intercultural Dialogue Studies in CBC; EU Communication
Studies in CBC, etc.).
During this period, most of the schools mentioned so far adapt in their reflections
to these developments, from disciplinary and multidisciplinary perspectives, to trans –
disciplinary perspectives, with some nuances that we will present below.
First of all, the French school, one of the schools with tradition in studying the
borders, during the period in question there is a more visible mutation in the study of the
borders. They are based on a multidisciplinary and multi -institutional approach (all
universities i n the border area of France have laboratories or groups of researchers, with
some additional mentions for the Universities of Lille37 and Strasbourg38).
Secondly, in recent years a group of researchers has been established in
Luxembourg, meeting within the I nstitute of Socio -Economic Research (LISER), whose

37 In Lille it is noticeable the centre of research Territoires, Villes, Environnement & Société
(TVES) multidisciplinary (géographie, aménagement et urbanisme, sociologie, économie,
gestion, droit), where the activity of professor Thomas Perrin, Spatial Planning and European
Studies, is remarkable. He developed a reflection about the role of innovation in the development
of cross -border cooperation: Thomas Perrin , ―La gouvernance culturelle dans les eurorégions :
enjeux et dynamiques,‖ in ― Cross -Border Governance and the Borders Evolutions,‖ ed. Alina
Stoica, Carlos E. Pacheco Amaral, István Süli -Zakar, Eurolimes (Oradea University Press) 16
(Autumn 2013): 63 –78; Thomas Perrin and Frédéric Durand, ―Eurometropolis Lille -Kortrijk –
Tournai: Cross -Border Integration with or without the Border?‖ European Urban and Regional
Studies 25, no. 3 (2018): 320 –336; Thomas Perrin, ―Creative Regions on a European Cross –
Border Scal e: Policy Issues and Development Perspectives,‖ European Planning Studies (Taylor
& Francis, Routledge) 23, no. 12 (2015): 2423 –2437; Thomas Perrin, Culture et eurorégions. La
coopération culturelle entre régions européennes (Bruxelles: Éditions de l'Unive rsité de
Bruxelles, 2013); Sylvie Considère and Thomas Perrin, Frontières et représentions sociales.
Questions et perspectives méthodologiques (Paris: l‘Harmattan, 2017).
38 In Strasbourg it is noticeable the laboratory Frontières, acteurs et représentation s de l‟Europe
(FARE), where a rich activity is developed by researchers like: Birte Wassemberg, Vers une
eurorégion? La coopération transfrontalière franco -germano -suisse dans l‟espace du Rhin
supérieur de 1975 à 2000 (Bruxelles: Peter Lang, 2007); Birte W assemberg, Vivre et penser la
coopération transfrontalière (Volume 1): les régions frontalières françaises (Stuttgart: Steiner
Verlag, 2009); Joachim Beck and Birte Wassemberg, Grenzüberschreitende Zusammenarbeit
leben und erforschen (Governance in deutsch en Grenzregionen) (Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag, 2011);
Birte Wassemberg and Joachim Beck, Living and Researching Cross -Border Cooperation in
Europe : The European Dimension (Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag, 2011); Birte Wassemberg and
Joachim Beck, Vivre et penser la coopération transfrontalière (Volume 4) : les régions
frontalières sensibles (Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag, 2011).
38 Decoville Antoine, Durand Frédéric, and Feltgen Valérie, Opportunities of Cross -Border
Cooperation between S mall and Medium Cities in Euro pe (Luxembourg: Luxembourg Institute
for Socio -Economic Researches, 2015); François Durand and Christian Lamour, ― Cross -Border
Metr opolitan Governance: The Multi -Faceted State P ower,‖ Space and Polity 18, no. 3 (2014):
197–214; Christophe Sohn, Luxembourg. An Emerging Cross -Border Metropolitan Region
(Bruxelles: Peter Lang, 2012).

24
research in the field of cross -border cooperation is increasingly embracing a quantitative
interdisciplinary dimension39.
Finally, an important contribution to the development of the reflection on the
borders and cross -border cooperation in the new phase of the evolution of the European
Studies in the field of CBC has the German school, where there are several centres. Euro –
Institute for Cross -Border Cooperation, a French -German organization created in 1993 in
Kehl am Rhein40, where starting from the multi -dimensional reality of practical territorial
cooperation in Europe as it began to develop a trans -disciplinary scientific a pproach in the
field of European cross -border cooperation41. University of Saarland, where not only
researches have been developed concerning cross -border cooperation, but they have
important achievements in implementing these researches in European studies programs
of cross -border cooperation42.
In conclusion to this chapter, in which we sought to make a synthesis of the
evolution of CBC approaches towards an integration in the specific area of European
Studies research and after that we saw that there were noticed a lot of schools of reflection,
which in fact have the most important contributions regarding the affirmation of the field of
reflection of European Studies. This is why we consider that a review of the evolution of the
European studies field is st ill important for our research to see to what extent there is a solid
basis for building a specific European Studies approach in the field of CBC.

2. Is there a sufficient background in the field of European Studies to speak
of a specific approach in the field of CBC, in general and regarding the Eastern
border in particular?
Before analysing the problem set out in the question above, we consider that some
opinions are required on the subject of European Studies in general.

39 Decoville Antoine, Durand Frédéric, and Feltgen Valérie, Opportunities of Cross -Border
Cooperation between S mall and Medium Cities in Europe (Luxembourg: Luxembourg Institute
for Socio -Economic Researches, 2015); François Durand and Christian Lamour, ― Cross -Border
Metr opolitan Governance: The Multi -Faceted State P ower,‖ Space and Polity 18, no. 3 (2014):
197–214; Christophe Sohn, Luxembourg. A n Emerging Cross -Border Metropolitan Region
(Bruxelles: Peter Lang, 2012).
40 Joachim Beck, Anne Thevenet, and Charlotte Wenzel, eds, Europa ohne Grenzen – 15 Jahre
gelebte Wirklichkeit am Oberrhein / L'Europe sans frontières – 15 ans de réalité dans le Rhi n
supérieur (Zürich/Baden -Bade n: Nomos, 2009); Joachim Beck and Birte Wassenberg (eds),
Grenzüberschreitende Zusammenarbeit erforschen und leben (Band 2): Governance in den
deutschen Grenzregionen (Stuttgart: Steiner Verlag, 2011); Ruth Taillon, Joachim Beck, and
Sebastian Rihm, Impact Assessment Toolkit for Cross -Border Cooperation (Armagh: The Centre
for Cross Border Studies; Kehl: The Euro -Institute for Cross Border Co -operation
2011); Dieter B eck, Ulrike Becker -Beck, Joachim Beck, and Anne Dussap, eds, Kultur der
grenzüberschreitenden Verwaltungszusammenarbeit – Eine empirische Modellstudie am Beispiel
der Oberrhein -Region / Culture de la coopération transfrontalière administrative – Etude pilo te
empirique dans la région du Rhin supérieur (Speyer: Dt. Universität für Verwaltungswiss.
Speyer, 2015 ).
41 Joachim Beck, Transdisciplinary Discourses on Cross -Border Cooperation in Europe
(Bruxelles: Peter Lang, 2019).
42 For example a BA Program in Cross -Border Communication and Cooperation (www.uni –
saarland.de/en/study/prospective/programmes/first -degree/d/dfs.html) was initiated and a MA in
Border Studies (wwwen.uni.lu/studies/flshase/master_in_border_studies) between the universities
of Saarland, Lorraine and Luxembourg.

25
On the one hand, we consider that the studies regarding the process of accession to the EU
developed in particular the notion of Europeanization of the candidate countries, insisting
on the impact that the EU had in their internal policy. These studies, however, have limits
because they have placed in secondary level the studies regarding the specificity of the
Europeanization of these countries (the Romanian case, the Hungarian case , etc.)
On the other hand, the stu dies regarding the process of accession to the EU treated
with predilection the conditionality of the accession43 or normative44, but there are also
analysis that have oriented to the problematic of the transformative power of the EU45.
Here we must also disc uss the internal reaction to the external incentive model. This
internal reaction must be seen in the light of the strategy of the governments, which in
their relation with the EU, make some rational calculations – what profit brings the
alignment with Eur opean norms, compared to the internal effort for development46.
Therefore, in conclusion, regarding these brief considerations on the subject of
European Studies, we can say that the scope of these studies extends from a top-down
perspective – with the purs uit of a wide range of EU action s, from those from normative –
conditional type to those of transforming power –, to a bottom -up perspective, in which
the effects of imitation -innovation filters, reinterpretation of actions and resistance to EU
actions are f ollowed.
Before discussing the subject of European Studies applied in a specific area, that
of Cross -Border Cooperation and then to customize them to answer the geographic area of
the title of the present paper – EU Eastern Border – we consider that a revi ew of the way
in which exists today the field of European Studies in the EU and with an inclination
towards the EU Member States, it is necessary to understand our approach.
The place of European Studies within social sciences and with predilection
political sciences encounters dynamic debates with the reference to the interdependence
and interaction47. Ian Manners considers that Political and European Studies have a long
history of engagement and borrowing from each other48. Manners consider that when we
talk about European Studies we must admit from one side the disciplinarity character of
this field, as introductory perspective for different disciplines when have the approaches
about European aspects (historic, economic, politic, sociologic, etc.) . From other side,
Manners said that ―interdisciplinarity and interdisciplinarity suggest a need for
transdisciplinarity‖49. Going by a similar but integrating directive, Ben Rosamond

43 Frank Schimmelfennig and Ulrich Sedelmeier, The Europeanization of Central and Eastern
Europe (Ithaca: Cornell University Press, 2005).
44 Ian Manner, ―Normative P ower Europe: A Transdiciplinarity Approach to European Studies,‖ in
The Sage Handbook for European Studies , ed. Chris Rumford (Sage Publications, 2009), 561 –585.
45 Frank Schimmelfeni ng and Ulrich Sedelmeier, ―The S tudy of EU Enlargement: Theoretical
Approaches and Empirical Findings,‖ in Palgrave Advances in European Union Studies , ed.
Michelle Cini and Angela K. Bourne (London: Palgrave, Macmillan, 2006), 96 –116.
46 Claire Visier, ―Union européenne –Turquie: les effects du projet d‘élargissement,‖ Questions
internationales no. 94 (novembre -décembre 2018): 58.
47 Ioan Ho rga, ―European and/or EU Studies Curriculum between Internal and External Dr ivers,‖ in
The Romanian Journal of International Relations and European Studies 1, no. 1 (2012): 107.
48 Ian Manner s, ―When Has Political Studies D one for the Study of Europe?‖ UACE S News 65
(2010): 3.
49 Ibid.

26
considers it desirable ―to build tightly disciplined normal science of EU St udies as well as
an interdisciplinary perspective‖50.
The emergence of the European Studies as particular field is determinate by need
to give a complex of answers to the European problems and challenges, and of course, in
this context of the issues of borders and cross -border cooperation. Understanding
European societies in their development requires new methods taken from various
numbers of disciplines from geographical to the social sciences and humanities51.
Considering that Europe is a set of inter -relational societies, increasingly diverse
and more bound amongst themselves than any geographical or political space, is important
to build as possible the European Studies in the research and education area as a
―inherently interdisciplinary in their stru cture and approach‖52.
Of course, the evolution of research from the perspective of the European Studies
of the issue of EU borders in general and of the cross -border cooperation was determined
by the action of several drivers: utilitarian dimension53; the r esponse to the issues raised by
the European agenda54, the response to the debate on EU as conventional governance
model or a new model55, where national and supranational policies get mixed in the same
pot and not least; impact of theoretical current on Eur opean integration (i.e. the cleavage
between neofunctionalists, intergovernmentalists, federalists, etc.)56; impact of
institutionalization and professionalization of practitioners of European Studies57. Of
course, the action of these drivers of external fac ture was combined with the action of
driver s of internal facture, determined by the intellectual interaction between the
researches of different fields on the problem of borders, which we mentioned especially in
chapter I; a certain trend that started to d evelop especially in the candidate countries for
accession to the EU, after 2000, with the general launch of negotiations with the EU and
prospects for accessing European funds for cross -border cooperation.
Starting from these theoretical aspects that show the trend and the factors that
have determined the evolution of European Studies, as a distinct field in the ensemble of
the social and political sciences in particular, in the second part of this chapter we will
deal on the one hand, on the theoretical p erspective that shapes, from the perspective of
European Studies, the process of knowing the EU and CBC borders. It is important to
know questions regarding the power relations involved in the making of borders:
confrontational or cooperative; the local ne eds and external determination of borders; the
role of the CBC in changing the space; how the actors are involved in the CBC; about EU
as external drivers in the changes of meaning of the borders by a complex of programs,
policies, and imaginaries of polit ical community in which borders are used as resources

50 Ben Rosamond, ―European Integration and the Social Sciences of EU Studies: Disciplinary
Politics of a Subfield,‖ International Affaires 83, no. 1 (2007): 231 –252.
51 Horga, ―European and/or EU Studies Curriculum,‖ 108.
52 Michael L. Smith, ―Creating a N ew Space: UK European Studies Programmes at the
Crossroads,‖ Journal of Contemporary European Studies 11, no. 1 (2003): 23.
53 Rosamond, 241.
54 Simon Hix, ―The S tudy of European Union II: T he ‗New Governance‘ Agenda and I ts Rival,‖
Journal of European Public Policy 5, no. 1 (1998): 38 –65.
55 Horga, ―European and/or EU Studies Curriculum,‖ 109.
56 Ibid.
57 M. A Pollack, ―Theorizing the European Union: International Organization, Domestic Polity or
Experiment in New Governance? ‖ Annual Review of Political Sciences 8 (2005): 357 –398.

27
for different specific purposes; how, through support programs of CBC, has been the
creation of new communities of interest and geographically flexible networks.
On the other hand, we consider that the European Studies perspectives in the
research of cross -border confrontation and cooperation owes much to research in other
scientific fields, especially those of political and human geography, which not only
because it has a long tradition in research, but created in its evolution a theoretical and
methodological resource that we must take into account.
The research from the European Studies sphere must firstly focus on the functional
dimension of the borders is linked to the flows of people on both sides of a border for
reasons that can be linked to work, shopping, the use of public amenities and other
services. This dimension of the integration process has been widely investigated in the
field of border stud ies and has been defined as the flow approach58.
Secondly, the research of Europeans from the field of border studies and the CBC
must focus on the institutional dimension related to cross -border cooperation and the
building of multi -level governance networ ks that is to say, to the structuring of the
decision -making process with respect to cross -border issues59.
Thirdly, according to James W. Scott, the structural dimension of cross -border
integration, which refers to the evolution and the convergence (or not ) of the border
territories with respect to socio -economic spatial characteristics60 must be considered.
Finally, from the perspective of European Studies, the ideational dimension of
cross -border integration, which consists of the more subjective elements linked to
collective representations, must be taken into account in the study of borders and CBC.
Focusing on the ideational dimension of borders helps to go beyond the top -down
perspective on borders and takes into account the individual border narratives and
experiences, which reflect ―the ways in which borders impact on the daily life practices of
people living in and around the borderland and transboundary transition zones‖61.
The issue of borders and CBC can be viewed from several ambivalent
perspective s. We think, on the one hand, of a national versus a post -national and European
perspective, which is in a permanent fluidity on a scale that goes from a close level to an
open level. On this scale, the researches from the field of European Studies have sh own a
permanent transfer from the national to the post -national especially and then to the
European level, during the pre -accession period, when the phenomenon of conditionality
in the relation between Brussels and the candidate states was strong. In the c ontext of the
economic crisis and the post -crisis, however, we are witnessing a phenomenon of
recovering the national perspective not only in political action, but also in the reflection on
regionalization and decentralization62, with obvious extension to the problems of borders
and CBC.

58 van Houtum, ―An Overview of European Regional Research,‖ 59.
59 Markus Perkmann, ―Building Governance Institutions across European Borders,‖ Regional
Studies 33 (1999): 657 –667.
60 James W. Scott, ―B ordering, Border Politics,‖ 27–44.
61 David Newman, ―Borders and Bordering: Towards an Interdisciplinary Dialogue,‖ European
Journal of Social Theory 9, no. 2 (2006): 171 –186.
62 Ioan Horga, “The state Remained the M ost Important Partne r of the European Union in the F ield
of Regional Policy in Central and Eastern Europe,‖ in Facing the Ch allenges in European Union.
Re-thinking of EU Education and Research for S mart and Inclusive Growth (EuInteg) , ed. Ewa
Latoszek, Magdalena Proczek, Agnieszka Kłos, Marta Pachocka and Ewa Osuch -Rak (Warsaw:
Polish European Community Studies Association – Elipsa, 2015), 257 –282.

28
In fact, here we have to introduce a new item to understand the post national
perspective on the borders and especially its specific European development; it is about
how we understand the concept of bordering. On the one ha nd, we must see it in a
pragmatic way as an approach that derived generalizable knowledge from practices of
border transcendence. On the other hand, we must see it as a critical approach that
theorized and questions the conditions that give rise to border -generating categories.
Looking closer we can see that the European or post -national perspective on
border issues and the CBC, even if in the last decade we have a regression to the national
one, does not represent a return to the point of departure, at lea st when the candidate states
from Central and Eastern Europe started with the EU accession negotiations. It is rather a
circular movement of return, but on another much higher level, marking a clear progress.
We witness the situations when, facing problems of functioning of structures of
cross -border cooperation – e.g. euroregions63 – or when the opportunities of opening
borders are offered; various local actors take the European action model and act. It
happens in this case that we have another ambivalence regarding the issues of borders,
that of local versus national. In these conditions, the local pressures the national to remain
open, to ensure the degree of permeability of the borders sufficient to realize the
emergence of new political and economic unit s that are partly incorporated but also
beyond the context of the nation -state. Under these conditions, the local is a bottom -up
factor of Europeanization, so that the transformation of borders into post -national borders
that might define polities that tra nscend the jurisdictional and conceptual limits of State
centre orientations, for example as a community of States, as networks of cities or cross –
border regions.
On the other hand, the issue of borders and cross -border cooperation has affirmed
a new type of relationship between Brussels and the candidate states, as opposed to the
conditional dim ension applied in other fields – economy, legislation, administration – the
transformative one. European actions, through cross -border cooperation programs, even if
they contain elements of conditionality, but given the sensitivity of the field, did not have
the same level of rigor, leaving a larger space to action. In fact, we can say that in the
practice of applying the European instruments in the CBC, another type of relationship
was forged between Brussels and candidate states, on the one hand the transformative –
bilateral and on the other the transformative -networking. Now these practices have
become not only a very important practical know -how that will be used b y the EU
especially in relation to the states outside the EU borders, but at the same time a package
of scientific accumulation, results of research in the field of border issues and especially
of the EU's external borders.
Leading our investigation into t he way the EU's eastern border is investigated and
its cross -border cooperation activities, from the perspective of European Studies we need
to consider how these researches relate to the types of actions that EU policies develop in
this case.
From the beg inning we must say that following the launch of the EU
Neighbourhood Policy, there is a clear evolution towards the permeability of its Eastern
border, while its southern border has become less permeable in the context of the 2015 –
2016 refugee crises. From this perspective, we will direct our approach to the analysis of
how research on this border and cross -border cooperation has highlighted the types of
actions developed by the EU and the Member States on the Eastern border.

63 Ioan Horga, ― De la décentralisation à la recentralisation en Europe centrale et orientale. Le cas de
la Roumanie,‖ Pôle Sud 46, no. 46 (2017): 63–79.

29
Of course, most research has ta ken on the topic of conditionality in the
relationship between the EU and the group of member states of EU's Eastern
neighbourhood. Looking at these research as a whole, they understood that the
conditionality action in the EU relationship with the states from its eastern border
(Belarus, Moldova or Ukraine) is almost excluded, in the CBC framework64, because, on
the one hand, the EU has limited material incentive to offer in interregional dialogue and
its record of inconsistency in applying sanctions it is unlikely that the EU has tangible
impact on the opportunity structures of its partners. On the other hand, EU's partners may
have little incentive to change their interest structure and identities.65
Some research on the role of CBC in the permeabili ty of t he EU's Eastern borders
– and these can be seen coming from specialists from the academic environment and only
from the countries of the EU's Eastern Neighbourhood (Belarus, Moldova and Ukraine),
which deal with the issue of borders – have critical nuances regarding the EU`s
instrumentation in the field of management and financing of cross -border cooperation66.
We could fit this research into the category of references to the cooperative hegemony
approach67, which means that to enlarge its market is a crucial precondition for EU to
extract maximum benefit from deeper integration. Seeking to disseminate its ideas and
values to other regional spaces, the EU actually achieves its initial purpose of extracting
economic benefits68.
A lot of research on the location of the Eastern border in the EU's relationship with
its partners EU's Eastern Neighbourhood and the CBC essentially has the dimension of
isomorphism. Of course, such a vision raises some problems, including how open are th e
countries in the Eastern Partnership to the EU? According to Jürgen Rüland, isomorphism is
indicated to go through two stages: the first step is the import of ―the organizational
structure and ideational underpinning with norms domestically considered ap propriate and
hence led legitimate; the second step must frame norms in a way that can be shared by other
member states in the region69. Looking closely at the research on the EU's relationship with
the EaP countries on the CBC theme, there is a greater emp hasis on the size of the import of
European values and less on the response to the adequacy of these values.
In fact, taking things closer to this process goes in the direction of Acharya's
localization theory, which considers that ―neither complete norms transformation nor
norm rejection is normal practice for norm recipients, but rather practice of actively

64 Ioan Horga and Ana Maria Costea, ―Cross -Border Cooperation as Network Instrument of EU
Integration of Moldova and Ukraine,‖ in EU Association Agreements with Georgia, Moldova and
Ukraine: Through Cooperation towards Integration ‖ (International Con ference Tbilisi, Georgia,
2017), ed. Carlos E. Pacheco Amaral, Gaga Gabrichidze, Ioan Horga, Anatoliy Kruglashov, Ewa
Latoszek, Marta Pachocka, and Vasile Cucerescu (Chișinău, Tbilisi, Cernivtsi: Print Caro, 2017),
273–288.
65 Jürgen Rüland, ―Interregionali sm and International Relations: Reanimating an Obsolescent
Research Agenda?‖ in Intersecting Interregionalism. Regions, Global Governance and the EU,
ed. Francis Baert, Tiziana Scaramagli, and Fredrik Soderbaum (Springer, 2014), 28.
66 In the next chapter we will mention these studies.
67 Thomas Pederson, ―Cooperative Hegemony: Power, I deas and Institutions in Regional
Integration,‖ Review of International Studies 28, no. 4 (2002): 677 –696.
68 Rüland, 30.
69 Ibid., 29.

30
adjuncting the alien norm to the local repository of norms‖70. Thus local agents do this
through framing, grafting and pruning, thus making foreign and local norms compatible.
This way, the existing norms are transformed and at the same time, they can also be
legitimized71.
Studies on the interaction between the EU and other regions, which can be
integrated into communicative action theory , in this case t he countries of the Eastern
Partnership, have shown how they evolved from ―inclusive bargaining to rhetorical
action‖72, a mode of communication whereby actors seek to persuade others to change
their beliefs, interest and identities73. J. Rüland believes tha t research is still at the
beginning, but the inverse phenomenon in which norms, ideas from regions with which
the EU is in contact is transmitted in the EU74, should not be neglected. We call this
phenomenon acculturation .
We believe that the research on t he Eastern border and the CBC at this border
cannot neglect any of the dimensions outlined so far and presented above, but they will
have to be viewed in a complex and interdependent dimension. This fact is due in
particular to the practical reality of the action in the European Neighbourhood Policy area,
which, given the fact that the transfer of European values and norms to the countries
outside the EU borders does not produce much fruit using the conditionality leverage,
begins to assert a new type of EU -EaP relationship, the network based one. As we have
stated above, networking as type of relation and action between the EU and its partners
from EU's Eastern Neighbourhood has been forged e specially in the area of Cross -Border
Cooperation, so it is to be emphasized that ―network governance could be an alternative to
conditionality‖75 method in the relationship EU – European Neighbourhood Partners and
especially in the field of CBC between EU – EaP.
In conclusion, we consider that there is a rich theoretical support, on the
one hand, regarding the approach of the CBC issue in the context of the
Europeanization of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, which covers a
wide range from the problem of conditionality to the problem of transformative
power of the EU. This ambivalent and complementary vision, which was forged
especially in the scope of the CBC practice at the internal borders of the EU, in
Central and Eastern Europe, in the two decades since the beginning of the
enlargement process and until today, represents, in our opinion a good asset which
is to be emphasized also in the research regarding the situation at the eastern
border of the EU.
In the next chapter we will seek to review the input of researchers working in the
area of the eastern b order of the EU in clarifying some aspects of the CBC's particularities at

70 Amitav Acharya, ―H ow Ideas Spread: Whose Norms Matter? Norm Localization and International
Change in Asian Regionalism,‖ International Organization 58, no. 2 (2004): 239 –275.
71 Rüland, 29.
72 Maria Gabriela Manea, ―Human Rights and the Interregional Dialogue between Asia and Europe:
ASEAN – EU Relations and ASEM,‖ The Pacific Review 21, no. 3 (2004): 369 –396; Maria
Gabriela Manea, ―How and W hy Interaction Matters,‖ Cooperation and Conflicts 44, no. 1
(2009): 27 –49; Frank Schimmelfenning, The EU, NATO and the Integration of Eu rope, R ules and
Rhetoric (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2003).
73 Rüland, 29.
74 Ibid., 30.
75 Sandra Lavenex, ― A Governance Perspective on the European Neighbourhood Policy: Integration
beyond Conditionality?‖ Journal of European Public Policy 15, no. 6 (2008): 938 –955.

31
this border and how the most effective policies have been chosen to ensure an
approximation of countries beyond this borders to the space, values and practices in the EU.

3. The ro le of research in CBC area at the Eastern Border of EU in the
development of European Studies?
Accumulations of knowledge in all fields from universities and research institutes
in Western Europe on the issue of internal and external borders of the EU and especially
on the CBC have been an important incentive for the academic environment in the
countries in the accession process. In contrast to the accumulations in Western Europe,
where some distinct stages are going on, in Central and Eastern Europe, the a ccumulations
in the field of European Studies are almost coincident with those in the mono -disciplinary
fields (geography, history, economy, sociology, political sciences) or at a relatively short
distance of several years. We can say that we are practical ly witnessing a convergent
explosion of border research and cross -border cooperation between the mono -disciplinary
and interdisciplinary fields of European Studies. The issue of European borders and cross –
border cooperation has gained scale in the context of the beginning of the negotiations for
the accession of CEEC to the European Union. From the perspective of European Studies,
this problem, at least until the accession of these states, was more of a multidisciplinary
aspect (especially the researches of the History of European Integration, European
Economy, Political Science and European Public Administration, etc.), in which each field
advances its own set of knowledge tools.
When discussing the academic contribution from CEEC to the study of frontiers
and CBC, we should especially note the contribution of the specialists from Hungary.
They were among the first, especially the Hungarian geographers, who in the context of
the opening of borders after 1990 advanced research on this issue, having a great me rit
that, beyond some minor nuances of nostalgic nature after the former Austro -Hungarian
Empire, did not remain ' 'prisoners of history', but they were the promoters of the post –
national model of borders, emphasizing their permeabilization and the develop ment of
cross -border cooperation projects. Basically there is no university centre in Hungary,
which has not plunged into this new orientation, of course with its specificities. In
Debrecen76 and Miskolc77 the role of promoters was of the geographers. Also, the

76 István Süli -Zakar and Ioan Horga, Regional Development in the Romanian -Hungarian Cross –
Border Space. From National to European Perspective (Debrecen: Debreceni Egyetem Kossuth
Egyetemi Kiadó , 2006), István Süli -Zakar , Neighbours and Partners on the Two S ides of the
Borders (Debrecen: Debreceni Egyetem Kossuth Egyetemi Kiadó, 2008); Ioan Horga and István
Süli-Zakar , Challenges and Perspectives in the Regional and Euroregional Issues in the N ew
Europe (Oradea -Debrecen: Editura Universităŝii din Oradea, 2006); Ioan Horga & István Süli –
Zakar (eds), Cross -Border Partnership. With Special Regards to the Hungarian -Romanian –
Ukrainian Tripartite Border (Debrecen: University of Debrecen Press; Oradea: Oradea
University Press 2010); Béla Barany , Hungarian -Romanian and Hungari an-Ukrainian Border
Regions as A reas of Co -operation along the External Borders of Europe (Pecs: Centre for
Regional Studies of Hungarian Academy of Sciences, 2005); Kl ára Czimre, Cross -Bord er Co –
operation: Theory and Practice (Debrecen: Debreceni Egyetem Kossuth Egyetemi Kiadó, 2006);
Klára Czimre, ― Cross -Border Co -operation in Europe: Scientific Research ,‖ in ―Europe from
Exclusive Borders to Inclusive Frontiers,‖ ed. Gerard Delanty, Dana P antea, and Károly Teperics,
Eurolimes (Oradea: Oradea University Press) 4 (2007): 78; István Süli -Zakar and Klára Czimre,
―Carpathian Euroregion: Borders in the Region – Cross -Border Co -operation (Debrecen: Kossuth
Egyetemi Kiadó, 2001); Klára Czimre, ―Recovery or Discovery? Models and Motives of Cross -Border
Co-operation along the Eastern Border of Hungary after 1989 –1990,‖ in ―The European Borders at

32
Hungarian Academy of Sciences formed a group of researchers, who joined this trend78.
The Hungarian authors have also focused on what will be the future Eastern border of the
EU. It is well known the involvement of Professor István Sü li-Zakar from Debre cen in the
creation of the Carpathian Euroregion and then in the research related to this topic. The
theme of the Carpathian Euroregion79will represent, in our opinion, for the Hungarian
academic environment, the gateway from a national approach to a post -national approach
of border issues.
With the entry into the period of accession to the European Union, some of the
Hungarian authors, with concerns in border issues under the impact of the evolution of the
field of European Studies and especially the young generation, affirmed after 2004 –2007,
who comes in contact with the evolutions in this field, will develop research, which even
if remain in the sphere of geography, economy or social sciences, will carry a strong
interdisciplinary or transdisciplinary imp rint, specific to the domain of European Studies.
We are thinking of the representatives of the Department of Social Geography and
Regional Development, from the University of Debrecen who, together with colleagues
from the Department of International Rela tions and European Studies from the University
of Oradea will establish in 2006 the Institute of Euroregional Studies, A structure of
interdisciplinary research dedicated to the study of borders and cross -border cooperation.
The new EU border, after 2007, brings before the Hungarian researchers the
challenge of studies on the border and the CBC with major implications and for the
development of European Studies, having as an object at th e Eastern border, the
Hungarian –Ukrainian cross -border relations and, a t the sou thern border with the
Hungarian –Serbian one s and, until 2013 the Hungarian –Croatian.

Hundred Y ears after the First World War,‖ ed. Cristina -Maria Dogot, Klára Czimre, and Renaud D e
LA Brosse , Eurolimes (Oradea: Oradea University Press) 26 (Autumn 2018): 97 –112; G ábor Kozma,
―Characteristic Features of the Economic Management of local Authorities in the Western and the
Eastern Border A reas of Hungary,‖ in Neighbours and Partners on the two sides of the Borders , ed.
István Süli -Zakar (Debrecen: Debreceni Egyetem Kossuth Egyetemi Kiadó , 2008), 19 –26; G ábor
Kozma, ―The U se of Cross -Border Co -operation and Border Location in P lace Marketing,‖ in ―From
Smaller to Greater Europe: Border Id entitary Testimonies,‖ ed. Mircea Brie and Kozma G ábor,
Eurolimes (Oradea: Oradea University Press) 2 (Autumn 2006): 74 –79.
77 Károly Kocsis, Judit Sansum Molnár, G ábor Michalkó, Zsolt Bottlik, Bal ázs Szabó, D ániel
Balizs, György Varga, ―Internatio nal Migration into Europe – An Old -New Challenge from the
Afro-Asian Neighbourhood,‖ in ―Migration at the European Borders,‖ ed. Florentina Chirodea,
Marta Pachocka, and Kozma G ábor, Eurolimes (Oradea: Oradea University Press) 23 -24 (Spring –
Autumn 2017): 167 –190; K ároly Kocsis, ―Historical Predecessors and Current Geogra phical
Possibilities of Ethnic B ased Territorial Autonomies in the Carpathian Basin,‖ in Autonomies in
Europe: Solutions and Challenges , ed. Zoltán Kántor (Budapest: Nemzetpolitikai Kutatóintéze t
[NPKI – Research Institute for Hungarian Communities Abroad ], 2014), 83 –121; K ároly Kocsis,
Monika M ária Váradi, ―Borders and Neighbourhoods in the Carpatho -Pannonian Area,‖ in The
Ashgate Research Companion to Border Studies , ed. Doris Wastl -Walter (Far nham: Ashgate,
2011), 585 –605.
78 Gábor Lux, Gyula Horv áth, The Routledge Handbook to Regional Development in Central and
Eastern Europe (London: Routledge, 2017); Erőss Ágnes, Károly Kocsis , Tátrai Patrick,
―Changing Permeabi lity – Different Patterns of Cross -Border Relations: Comparative Research
of Berehove/Beregszász (UA) and Oradea/Nagyvárad (RO),‖ in Creating Economic and Social
Neighbourhoods across Political Borders, ed. B. Filep, A. Kovács, T. T. Sikos, and D. Wastl –
Walter (Komárno, Slovakia, 2009 ), 1–14. CD-ROM.
79 Carpathian Euroregion was created in 1993 and comprised administrative units from Hungary,
Poland, Romania, Slovakia, and Ukraine.

33
The Polish researchers were also very active in the field of border and CBC
studies after 1990. Similarly, like in the case of Hungary, there were the geographers who
set the tone first, through studies especially referring to the Western border of Poland. The
schools in Gdansk80 or Lodz81 were noted here. Unlike Hungary, the issue of borders and
cross -border co -operation has quickly reached the concerns of Polish sp ecialists in
European Studies. It is worth noting the activity of the Polish economists, who started
research projects concerning in particular the Czech –Polish or Slovak –Polish border
(Katowice University of Economics)82 or at the borders of Eastern Poland in general, by
involving universities of Bialystok83 and Lublin84.

80 Delia Bar -Kołelis and Jan A. Wendt, ―Comparison of Cross -Border Shopping Tourism Activities
at the Polis h and Romanian External Borders of European Union,‖ Geographia Polonica 91, no.
1 (2018): 113 –125; Agnieszka Derlaga and Jan Wendt, ― Cross -Border Co -operation between the
Republic of Romania, Ukraine and Moldova,‖ in Regional Transborder Co -operation in
Countries of Central and Eastern Europe – A Balance of Achievements , ed. Jerzy Kitowski,
Geopolitical Studies 14 (2006): 141 –158; Alexandru Ilieș, Jan Wendt, Dorina Ilieș, Vasile
Grama, ― Romanian/Ukrainian Borderland (Northern Sector) Typology Determined b y the
Administrative Territorial Units (NUTS 3),‖ Central European Policy and Human Geography 2
(2011): 7 –15; Renata Anisiewicz and Tadeusz Palmowski, ― Small Border Traffic and Cross –
Border Tourism between Poland and the Kaliningrad Oblast of the Russian F ederation,‖
Quaestiones Geographicae 33, no. 2 (2014): 79 –86; Tadeusz Palmowski, ― Problems of Cross –
Border Cooperation between Poland and the Kaliningrad Oblast of the Russian Federation,‖
Quaestiones Geographicae 16, no. 4 (2010): 67 –79.
81 At University o f Łódź was published the journal Regions and Regionalism (editor proof, Marek
Koter), which published several issues whit the topic borders and Cross -Border cooperation, i.e.:
Marek Koter and Krystian Heffner, ― The role of Ethnic Minorities in Border Regio ns. Forms of
their Composition. Problems of Development and Political Rights,‖ Regions and Regionalism 1,
no. 6 (2003); Marek Koter and Krystian Heffner, Borderlands or Transborder Regions :
Geographical, Social and Political Problems (Governmental Research Institute, Silesian Institute
in Opole , 1998); Marek Sobczyński, The R ole of Borderlands in United Europe : Historical,
Ethnic and Geopolitical Problems of Borderlands (Państwowy Instytut Naukowy -Instytut Ślęski
w Opolu , 2005).
82 Małgorzata Dziembała, ―Do EU Cross -Border Cooperation Programmes Contribute to
Competitiveness and Cohesion? The C ase of the Polish -Czech Borderland, ‖ Yearbook of the Institute
of East -Central Europe 16, no. 3 (2018): 39 –67; Małgorzata Dziembała , ―Do EU Cross -Border
Cooperation Programmes Contribute to Competitiveness a nd Cohesion? The C ase of the Polish -Czech
Borderland,‖ Rocznik Instytutu Europy Środkowo -Wschodniej 16, no. 3 (2018): 39 –67.
83 The University of Bialystok is the initiator of the project Bo rder Universities network
(established in 2013) to which the following universities belong: The I. Kant Baltic Federal
University in Kaliningrad; Baranavicki State University (Belarus); A. S. Pushkin Brest State
University (Belarus); Janka Kupala Grodno St ate University (Belarus), Ivan Franko National
University of Lviv (UA), Ternopil National Economic University (UA); Vytautus Magnus
University in Kaunas (LIT); Voronezh State University (RUS), Smolensk Branch of the Russian
Presidential Academy of National Economy and Public Administration (Rus). The activity
stopped in 2014 because of the conflict in Eastern Ukraine. Now this network activates within the
framework of l Erasmus K107 with exchanges of professors and students, but without exchanges
between EU and Russia (https://sup.uwb.edu.pl/en/gallery.html). As well, at the University of
Byałistok were organised conferences like “Friendly border” as a necessary element of
strengthening the relations between the Polish and Russian societies , 10–11 October 20 11;
Smolensk – Minsk – Bialystok: Regional Aspect of the Eastern Partnership of the European
Union , October 19 –20, 2010. Białystok Self -Government Academy is conducting research on the
cross -border cooperation in Middle Eastern Poland, which, on the one ha nd, aims at theoretical

34
Regarding the Eastern border of the EU, especially the one with Ukraine, we must
note the involvement of the University of Rzeszów, in cross -border projects85 and in the
development within th e Institute of Political Sciences of some researches regarding cross –
border cooperation with Ukraine86 and, especially in the last decade, we must note
Warsaw Business School activity87.
Let us then take into account the activity of the academic environment in Slovakia
in CBC projects and research regarding border with Ukraine, noting in particular the
universities of Preńov88 and Końice. In fact, in Końice there were the headquarters of the
Association of Universities of the Carpathian Region (ACRU)89 and wher e the universities
here, together with those of Preńov and Trenčin, were important vectors of coagulation.
ACRU – in almost two decades of activity – was not only the convergence factor between
the universities from the future Eastern border of the EU (Hun gary, Poland, Romania,
Slovakia, Serbia and Ukraine) in a time when the EU had not yet started the enlargement
process to the East and had not launched the neighbourhood policy and in which the first
steps were taken from a national app roach to a post -national border. The association
provided not only the connections between the universities in border areas, with all the
necessary background for students and professors exchanges, organizing conferences
related to the university -to-university conferences etc . ACRU was also a mini -laboratory
for the involvement of the universities in this region in cross -border cooperation and
research projects.

development, while on the other hand, at analysis of practical dimension of cross -border (Faculty
of Economics and Finance, ― Cross -Border Cooperation in Middle Eastern Poland,‖ accessed
January 24, 2019, http://www.weiz.uwb.edu.pl/c ross-border -cooperation).
84 Bogumiła Mucha -Leszko and Magdalena Kąkol, ―EU Economic Frontiers Determined by its
International Trade Position and trade Policy,‖ in ―The Geopolitics of the European Frontiers,‖
ed. Dorin I. Dolghi, Alexandru Ilieș, István Süli-Zakar , Eurolimes (Oradea: Oradea University
Press) 10 (Autumn 2010): 151–162.
85 Project PL -SK/KAR/IPP/III/124 (2013 –2014), ―People and the Nature – Transferring
Knowledge and Experience in the Carpathian Euroregion,‖ Project co -financed from the EU
Regional Development Fund as a part of Poland -Slovakia Cross -Border Cooperation Program;
Project WTSL.02.03.00 -84-147/10 -0, ―Support for Regional Cross -Border E -Cooperation,‖
Project co -financed by Cross -Border Cooperation Programme Poland –Slovak Republic 20 07–
2013; Project INTERREG IIIA/TACIA CBC 2004 –2006, ―Rzeszów -Lviv Cooperation Bridge,‖
funded by the University of Rzeszów, the City of Rzeszów and the European Regional
Development Fund, in partnership with Ivana Franka University of Lviv within the frame work of
the Neighbourhood Programme Poland – Belarus – Ukraine.
86 Anna Kołomycew, ― The Multi -Sector Partnership Involvement in the Polish –Ukrainian Cross –
Border Cooperation Development ,‖ in Enhancing Cross -Border Cooperation between the
European Union and Ukraine with Regard to Regional Development, Investments and Social
Capital Development in the Cross -Border Region , ed. Vladimir Benč (Preńov: Slovak Foreign
Policy Association, 2014), 60 –70.
87 In 2016 start ed the European Centre of Excellence at Warsaw School of Economics on European
Union ‟s Security and Stability in a N ew Economic, Social & Geopolitical Settlement (CEWSE ),
and the Jean Monnet project no. 574518 -EPP-1-2016 -1-PL-EPPJMO -CoE.
88 Vladimir Benč, Enhancing Cross -Border Cooperation between the European Union and Ukraine
with Regard to Regional Development, Investments and Social Capital Development in the Cross –
Border Region (Preńov: Slovak Foreign Policy Association, 2014).
89 Association of Carpathi an Region Universities (ACRU) was established in 1994 by sixteen
universities and colleges from five countries of the Carpathian region (www. acru.uvlf.sk).

35
In the Baltic area, the activity of the research carried out by the University of
Tartu90 is noteworthy, not only regarding the border of the Baltic countries with Russia91,
but also the development of projects and partnerships with universities from Belarus and
Ukraine, located in the Eastern border area of the EU.
In line with the same region al trend of a period marked by the national footprint of
border approaching, followed by a post -national transition period and continued with the
Europeanization of the perspective on borders, the border research and the CBC in
Romania was marked, on one h and by the synchronization with the regional trend, and on
the other hand by customizations.
If we talk about the synchronization, then we can say that in Romania we are
witnessing the three periods in the evolution of the reflection on borders and CBC, bu t
with many particularities.
First, the period of national footprint was one of the longest in the region.
Romanian researchers have hardly given up on approaching the national perspective of
borders. In the years 1996 –2000 there was even a certain crisis in this reflection, in the
context in which the traditionalists92, and who also had a favourable political ascendant,
were very active regarding the studies regarding the national perspective on the borders. It
is the period when the new generations of rese archers, going abroad, seek to come up with
learned approaches. During this period it was not even conceived to conduct studies on the
new structures of cross -border cooperation, such as euroregions, which were considered as
a true 'Trojan horse' for the s overeignty of the state.
Secondly, the transition period from a national to a post -national perspective, due
to the evolutions mentioned above, was in our opinion the shortest in the region, because
the process of accession to the EU of Romania began to be ar fruit, therefore, there was no
longer time for the period of balance between national and post -national, but we assist at
an almost direct dive in the third stage, that of the Europeanization of reflection, which
begins to be visible from the years 2001 –2002, when adequate masters programs appear93,
adequate courses supported by the ―Jean Monnet‖ program94 and a lot of young
researchers, at the beginning of the field of geography95, history96, economy97 started to

90 Triin Vihalemm and Anu Masso ―The Formation of Imagined Borders in post ‐Soviet Estonia:
Diaspora or Local Community?‖ Journal of Borderlands Studies (Taylor & Francis Group) 17,
no. 2 (2002): 35 –17; Piia Tammpuu and Anu Masso , ―Transnational Digital Identity as an
Instrument for G lobal Digital Citizenship: The C ase of Estonia‘s E -Residency,‖ in Inform ation
Systems Frontiers (Springer US, 2019), 1 –14; Gulnara Roll, ―Regional Development and Cross –
Border Cooperation in the EU Eastern Periphery. Case of the Estonian – Russian Border,‖
Journal of Nordregio no 1 (2009): 1 –9.
91 See Peipsi Center for Transbor der Cooperation, in Tartu (http://www.ctc.ee/peipsi -ctc).
92 Ilie Bădescu and Dan Dungaciu, Sociologia și geopolitica frontierei [Border sociology and
geopolitics] , vol. 1 -2 (București: Ed. Floare albastră, 1995).
93 Master in Euroregional Studies and Transborder Relations at University of Oradea
(www.uoradea.ro).
94 Jean Monnet Chair in Euroregional Studies at University of Oradea
95 Alexandru Ilieș, România. Euroregiuni [Romania. Euroregions] (Oradea: Editura Universităŝii
din O radea, 2004); Alexandru Ilieș, Jan Wendt, Dorina Ilieș, Vasile Grama,
―Romanian/Ukrainian Borderland (Northern Sector) Typology Determined by the Administrative
Territorial Units (NUTS 3),‖ in Central European Policy and Human Geography 2 (2011): 7 –15;
Alexandru Ilieș, Olivier Dehoorne, Dorina Camelia Ilieș, ― The Cross -Border Territorial System
in Romanian –Ukrainian Carpathian Area. Elements, Mechanisms and Structures Generating
Premises for an Integrated Cross -Border Territorial,‖ in Carpathian Journal of Earth and

36
treat the issue of European reflection on bor ders and cross -border cooperation. More than
that, genuine scientific joint ventures with specialists from the region are outlined – the
Poles (Gdansk, Lodz), Hungarians (Debrecen), steps are being taken to Moldova and
Ukraine (Ia și).
Thirdly, we are witnessing the outline in Romania of three poles of European
reflection on the borders and on the CBC: Ia și, Oradea and Timi șoara. We believe that an
external driver, the European Commission, played an essential role in this direction,
through the Action ( Jean Monnet Program)98, which financed from 2001 to 2005/2006 a
number of projects focusing on borders and cross -border cooperation.
Fourth, the Romanian reflection activity from the perspective of the European
Studies not only as it focuses on two poles, I ași and Oradea, but it is institutionalized,
raising in 2005 the 2 poles at the leve l of European Excellence Centres ―Jean Monnet,‖
producers of projects, education and knowledge in the field of borders and CBC, which
polarize around them not only local re searchers on an interdisciplinary level, but are also a
factor that coagulates researchers from the region, whose results are published in impact
international journals99. For example in Oradea, the Institute of Euroregional Studies was

Environmental Sciences 7, no. 1 (2012): 27 –38; Nicolae Popa, Borders, Cross -Border Regions
and Regional Development in Middle Europe (Timișoara: West University of Timișoara, 2006);
Nicolae Popa, ―Frontières et régions transfrontalières en Rouman ie, entre territoires, cultures et
fonctions,‖ Geographica Timisiensis 13, no. 2 (2004): 75 –99.
96 Nicolae Păun and Adrian Ciprian Păun, Istoria construcției europene (Cluj-Napoca: EFES,
1999); Ioan Horga, Challenges and Perspectives in the Regional and Euroregional Issues in the
New Europe (Oradea: Oradea University Press, 2006); István Süli -Zakar and Ioan Horga,
Regional Development in the Romanian -Hungarian Cross -Border Space: From National to
European Perspective (Debrecen: Debreceni Egyetem Kossuth E gyetemi Kiadója, 2006); Ioan
Horga and Mircea Brie, ― Europe between Exclusive Borders and Inclusive Frontiers,‖ Studia
Universitatis Babeș -Bolyai. Studia Europaea 55, no. 1 (2010): 63–86; Ioan Horga and Ariane
Landuyt, Communicating the EU Policies beyond the Borders: Proposals for Constructi ve
Neighbour Relations and the N ew EU's External Communication Strategy (Oradea: Oradea
University Press, 2013); Ioan Horga an d Ana Maria Ghimiș, ―Romania – Part of the EU's Eastern
Frontier: Opportunities versus Respon sibilities,‖ in Studia Universitatis Babeș -Bolyai. Studia
Europaea no. 1 (2014): 101 –113; Ioan Horga and Claudiu A. Pop, ― Border A rea from Borderland
Proximity Communities to CBC Communities. Case Studies: Bihor – Hajdú Bihar Borderland
Area,‖ in ―Territor ial Marketing at he European Borders,‖ ed. Luminiŝa Șoproni, Kl ára Czimre,
and Khristina Prytula, Eurolimes (Oradea: Oradea University Press) 25 (Spring 2018): 149 –162.
97 Gabriela Drăgan, ―Deepening the Economic Integration in the Eastern Partnership: From a Free
Trade Area to a Neighbourhood Economic Community?‖ Eastern Journal of European Studies 6,
no. 2 (2015): 9 –26; Ioana Sandu and Gabriela Drăgan, ― Political Options and Economic
Prospects within the Eastern Partnership,‖ CES Working Papers 8, no. 2 (2 016): 289 –302;
Gabriela Carmen Pascariu, Adrian Pop, George Angliŝoiu, and Alexandru Purcăruș, Romania and
the Republic of Moldova: Between the European Neighbourhood Policy and the Prospect of EU
Enlargement (Pre-Accession Impact Studies III) (București: IER, 2005); Gabriela Carmen
Pascariu and Ramona Frunză, ― Eastern versus Souther n Peripherality in the EU: The S tudy from
the Perspective of Centre -Periphery Model,‖ in Transformations in Business and Economics 10,
no. 2B (2011): 590 –611.
98 Regarding Jean Monnet action as external Drivers see Horga, ―European and/or EU Studies
Curriculum,‖ 121.
99 In Iași Journal of Eastern European Studies is published; in Oradea, the journal Eurolimes (28
volumes) is published, since 2006.

37
founded between the representatives of the academic environment in Debrecen and
Oradea, and in Ia și, Centre for the European Studies.
Fifthly, looking back at the over 15 years of activity in the field of border studies
and cross -border cooperation, it can be said that the Ro manian researchers recovered the
delay they had as compared with their colleagues in the region and together with them
they brought their contribution not only to the development of the knowledge in this field,
by an increasingly appropriate synchronizatio n with the researches of the consecrated
western -European schools100, but they are strongly implicated in multiplying the
knowledge to the researchers beyond the borders of the EU, especially the Eastern one101.
Finally, it can be noted that European researche rs in Romania have begun to
accumulate a great deal of knowledge about the Eastern border of the EU and cross -border
cooperation between the EUMS from the East and the countries of the Eastern
Partnership. Here, we can note, besides the two poles – Iași and Oradea – the National
School of Political and Administrative Sciences in Bucharest, the Ștefan cel Mare
University in Suceava and more recently the ―Dunărea de Jos‖ University in Gala ŝi.
The experience of the candidate states in Central and Eastern Europ e, which
became member states in the EU after 2004 –2007, in the field of border studies and cross –
border cooperation from the perspective of European Studies, will play an essential role in
stimulating the development of specific competences, institutes an d mentalities in the
states at the Eastern border of the EU border, especially Ukraine and Moldova.
If, on the one hand, the academic environment in the states located to the east of
the EU border has taken from their neighbours old methods, practices and knowledge
adapted to the socio -economic environment of the region, the same environment is treated
in research projects with specialists in border issues from consecrated schools in Western
Europe, specifically in Germany, Finland, France and the Netherlan ds. Through this East –
West symbiosis, a mechanism of osmotic transfer of rules, values and knowledge is put
into operation that produces important mutations in the direction of the integration of the
academic environment in these East -European states in th e European space of education
and knowledge in general and the one regarding the role of CBC in particular.
In the second part of this chapter we will review the results of this isomorphic
action of transferring know -how from the EU to the EU's Eastern ne ighbourhood, which is
part of the Europeanization beyond Europe process and which ―cover a wide range of
policies and is based on the explicit commitment of the EU to extend its acquis beyond

100 Jean Monnet Pro ject, Multilateral Research Group Project Initiative and Constraint in the
Mapping of Evolving European Borders (ICMEEB) , 2011 –2013, coordinated by University of
Oradea, in partnership with 17 institutions from 14 contrives. From EU‘s Eastern neighbourhood
area was involved: Ukraine (National University Uzhhorod, Yury Fedkovich National University
from Chernivtsi), Moldova (State University of Moldova, Chișinău), Russia ( I. Kant Baltic
Federal University in Kaliningrad).
101 Jean Monnet Project 587848 -EPP-1-2017 -1-RO-EPPJMO -NETWORK (2017 -2020) European
Union and its Neighbourhood. Network for Enhancing EU‟s Actorness in the Eastern
Borderlands (ENACTED), coordinated by Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași in partnership
with University of Orade a and Ștefan Cel Mare University from Suceava (Romania), Yury
Fedkovich National University from Chernivtsi and Odessa National University and the NGO
from Ukraine, Academy of Economic Studies of Moldova, Chișinău, Belarusian State University,
Minsk; Econo mic University from Warsaw and University of Debrecen.

38
memberships‖102, and, on the other hand, in the institutional chan ge103 and harmonization
with the activity of EU's scholars in different fields104, in this case in research on the role
of the borders and CBC in the process of Europeanisation. Looking at the overall
contributions of researchers regarding the study of the Eas tern border and the CBC to this
developed border area in the EU's Eastern Neighbourhood, we can say that they tend to
reach a higher and higher level of convergence105 with those developed by the academic
environment in the EU member states, being methodolog ically and theoretically closer to
the research of the specialists in the new EU member states.
As expected, the most active in research on the Eastern border of the EU and the
CBC are colleagues in Ukraine, especially those in Lviv, Chernitvtsi and Uzhhor od. In
fact, these universities are also the most involved in the programs of cross -border
cooperation with neighbouring EU states. Besides these centres there are new concerns in
this direction at the universities of Odessa, Lutzk and Ivano Frankisvsk, to o. As it can be
remarked, concerns in the direction of research on the EU Eastern border have the
universities near this border, which can be explained both by internal driver action (born
from the domestic agenda of the respective universities), as well a s by the external driver
(influence that the universities in the neighbouring countries of the EU had in stimulating
joint research).
Ivan Franko National University of Lviv106 is the most active of the Ukrainian
universities on issues regarding the borders, given that, on the one hand, it is located in the
Lviv region ( oblast – old Galicia) and on the other hand it has strong partnerships with
universities fr om Poland located at the Polish –Ukrainian border (Lublin and Rzeszów)
and was involved early in 1990 in cross -border cooperation projects107. Within this
university there are a few researchers who have addressed various topics of the Eastern
border of the EU108 and of the Polish –Ukrainian cross -border cooperation109. A

102 Franz Schimmelfennig, ―Europenisation beyond Europe,‖ Living Reviews in European
Governance 10, no. 1 (2015): 6, accessed October May 10, 2019, http://europeangovernance –
livingreviews.org/Articles/Ir eg-2015 -1/.
103 Sandra Lavenex, ― The P ower of F unctionalist Extension: How EU R ules Travel,‖ Journal of
European Public Policy 21, no. 6 (2014): 885 –903.
104 Meri Maghlakelidze, ―EAP Countries with European Standards in Border Management:
Europenisation Driven by EU‘s Demands or Domestic Agenda?‖ Georgian Journal for European
Studies no. 4 -5 (2018 –2019): 77 –96.
105 On the topic of convergence between policies, a ctions and competences in EU space and that of
EU‘s Eastern neighbourhood the works of Meri Maghlakelidze, cited at the previous note, may be
consulted: Julia Langbein and Kataryna Wolczuk, ―Convergence without Membership? The
Impact of the European Union in the Neighbourhood: Evidence from Ukraine,‖ Journal of
European Public Policy 19, no. 6 (2012): 863 –881.
106 Founded in 1661, Ivan Franko National University of Lviv, the oldest university in Ukraine.
107 Border Universities Network, accessed May 10, 2019, https://sup.uwb.edu.pl/en/gallery.html.
108 Ihor Hrabynskyy, ―Expan sion of the European Union and I ts Influence on Changes in the
Structure of Ukraine‘s Foreign T rade with Poland and the EU,‖ in Polish -Ukrainian Economic
Relations: Chances and Challenges , ed. Igor Hrabynskyy and Andrzej Podraza (Lublin:
Publishing House of Catholic University of Lublin, 2008), 9 –19; Mykhaylo Komarnytskyy,
―Education without Borders: Trans -Dniester European College as a W ay of Settlement
Resolution of Regional Conflict,‖ in The Program for the Advancement of Research on Conflict
and Collaboration Working Papers (Maxwell School of Syracuse University, Spring 2008 ): 1–
26; Roman Kalytchak, ―The S tate of Research on European Integration in Ukraine,‖ in Poland in
the European Union: Adjustment and Modernisation. Lessons for Ukraine (Warsaw: University
of Warsaw, 2012).

39
contribution in this direction was support ed by the Jean Monnet Program, which has
funded 2 modules and starting in 2018 the Centre of Excellence ―Jean Monnet,‖ which
addresses issues related to the Eastern border and CBC110.
A very important contribution to the research of the EU Eastern border and of
cross -border cooperation has the Institute of Regional Research named after M.I.
Dolishnyj of the National Academy of Science of Ukraine from Lviv, where there is a
research direction dedicated to cross -border cooperation, which develops research proje cts
supported by the National Academy of Science of Ukraine and other national111 and
European donors112 and which has produced reports and scientific publications especially
regarding Ukraine's borders with the EU113.
At Yuriy Fedkovych Chernivtsi National Univ ersity there is the Research Institute
of European integration and regional studies, which has developed some projects also
supported by the Jean Monnet Program, which includes the issues of the EU Eastern

109 Ihor Hrabynskyy, ―Social and Economic Problems of Ukrainian -Polish Cross -Border
Cooperation,‖ in Contemporary Socio -Economic Issues of Polish -Ukrainian Cross -Border
Cooperation , ed. Leszek Buller, Hubert Kotarski, and Yuriy Pachkovskyy (Warsaw: Center of
European Projects, 2017), 79 –93.
110 Western Ukrainian Research Centre of Excellence in European Studies (2018), coordinated by
Oksana Holovko Havrysheva; Jean Monet Mo dule Economics in European Integration Internal
Challenges and External Dimension Ukraine -EU (2016), Assoc. Prof. Vasyl Zelenko; Module
JM The EU‟s Subnational D imension (2014), Dr. Roman Kalytchak.
111 2012 –2015, Joint project ―‗Upper Prut‘ Euro -region – Region of Multi -Rural Realities,‖ in
collaboration with the Institute of Agricultural Economics of Romanian Academy; 2019 – Project
―Socio -Economic Substantiation of the Prospects of Building a Network of Border Crossing
Points in the Zakarpatska Oblast‘.‖
112 Project Jean Monnet № 599948 -EPP-1-2018 -1-UA-EPPJMO -SUPPA, Boosting Local
Economic Growth in Border Regions in the Process of EU Integration: Best Practices of Eastern
Partnership (EaP) Countries (2018 –2021).
113 Khrystyna Prytula and Yaroslava Kalat, ― Directions of Cross -Border Cooperation
Intensification in the Framework of the Euroregion ‗Upper Prut‘: Ukrainian -Romanian
Borderlands,‖ in ― Cross -Border Cooperation in Europe between Successes and Limits,‖
ed. Constantin -Vasile Ŝoca, Klára Czimre, and Vas ile Cucerescu, Eurolimes (Oradea: Oradea
University Press) 21 (Spring 2016): 29 –38; Khrystyna Prytula, Yaroslava Kalat , and Natalia
Vynar, ―Euro -Regional Cooperation as an Important Factor in Overcoming the Depression of
Rural Ukrainian -Romanian Border Are as,‖ Agricultural Economics and Rural Development , New
Series, Year XIII, no. 2 (2016): 147 –158; Khrystyna Prytula, Yaroslava Kalat , Yaroslava
Tsybulska et al., ―Modern Challenges of Cross -Border Cooperation Development in Ukraine:
Results of Sociological Research,‖ in Socio -Economic Potential of Cross -Border Cooperation:
International Collective Monograph , ed. S. Matkovskyy, M. Cierpiał -Wolan (Lviv: Ivan Franko
National University of Lviv, Ukraine; University of Rzeszów, Poland, 2017), 113 –127;
Khrystyna Prytula and Yaroslava Kalat , ―Conceptual Aspects of Providing Border Reg ions‗
Economic Security in the N ew Geopolitical Conditions of the 21 Century,‖ in ―T he European
Borders at Hundred Y ears after the First World War,‖ ed. Cristina -Maria Dogot, Klára Czi mre,
and Renaud De La Brosse, Eurolimes (Oradea: Oradea University Press) 26 (Autumn 2018):
113–124; Khrystyna Prytula , Olhea Pasternak , Yaroslava Tsybulska et al., Cross -Border
Cooperation of Ukraine with the EU Countries: Current Challenges and Possibili ties:
Monograph , ed. Khrystyna Prytula, SI (Lviv: ―Institute of Regional Research named after M. I.
Dolishniy of the NAS of Ukraine,‖ 2019) .

40
border114 and especially the cross -border cooperatio n in the Bucovina region, at the border
with Romania and Moldova115.
Uzhhorod National University, being located in the westernmost point of Ukraine
and in the Zakarpatia region, bordering four EU member states (Hungary, Poland,
Slovakia and Romania) is natu rally involved in the issue of border studies and cross –
border cooperation. The impulse of the research in these fields is provided, on the one
hand, by internal drivers – the environment in which it operates from a socio -economic
and cultural point of vie w, the number of CBC projects in which it is involved, a trained
human resource etc. On the other hand, this stimulus is also given by the action of external
drivers – who come less directly from the EU116 and more from projects coming from EU
member countri es, either as European funding117 or from funding from neighbouring
states118. The convergence of these projects led to the creation of a group of researchers

114 Jean Monnet Chair ―Approaching towards Comprehensive Knowledge of the European
Integration in Ukraine‖ (2011 –2014), coordinated by professor Anatoliy Kruglashov.
115 Anatoliy Kruglashov, ―Interethnic Relations Stability on the Ukraine -Romania Border: A Case
Study of the Chernivtsi Region,‖ in Ethnicity and Intercultural Dialogue at the European Union
Eastern Border , ed. Mircea Brie, Ioan Horga, and Sorin Șipos (Cambridge: Cambridge Scholars
Publishing, 2013), 296 –320; Anatoliy Kruglashov, ―Euroregion Upper Prut: Studies and
Activities,‖ in ― Cross -Border Governance and the Borders Evolutions,‖ ed. Alina Stoica, Carlos
E. Pacheco Amaral, Istv án Süli -Zakar, Eurolim es (Oradea: Oradea University Press) 16 (Autumn
2013), 27 –39; Anatoliy Kruglashov, ―Troublesome Neighborhood: Romania and Ukraine
Relationships,‖ New Ukraine. A Journal of History and Politics no. 11 (2011): 114 –125; Anatoliy
Kruglashov, ―Euroregion – The Potential of Interethnic Harmonization ,‖ Kärnten documentation.
Die Rolle der Volksgruppen im erweiterten Europa und beigrenzüberschreiten den
Kooperationsmodellen , Band 20/21 (Klagenfurt, 200 6), 164 –171; Pavlo Molochko, ―Current
Trends of Cross -Border Cooperation of Ukraine and Romania,‖ in ― Cross -Border Governance
and the Borders Evolutions,‖ Eurolimes (Oradea: Oradea University Press) 16 (Autumn 2013):
179–192; Yevheniya Yuriychuk, ―Informat ion S pace of ‗New Bordering A reas‘ in Ukraine,‖ in
Na pograniczach. Kultura – Literatura – Media: Monografia [On the borderlands: culture,
literature, media ], ed. Yevheniya Yuriychuk, Anna Chudzik, and Robert Lipelt, Seria: Na
pograniczachkulturinarodów. T om VIII. Red.naukova (Sanok: Państwowa Wiższa Szkoła
Zawodowaim. Jana Grodka w Sanoku, 2017), S. 159–173.
116 There is here one of the first Jean Monnet modules, focused on CBC and Regional Development
(2005 –2008), coordinated by professor Miroslava Lendel.
117 Partnership in the Jean Monnet Project, Multilateral Research Group Project Initiative and
Constraint in the Mapping of Evolving European Borders (ICMEEB) , 2011 –2013, coordinated by
University of Oradea; Project Jean Monnet A – 3111, 2005 Efficiency of Regional and
Euror egional Structures at the N ew EU Border , coordinated by University of Oradea;
International Research and Practical Conference, Contemporary socio -economic issues of Polish
– Ukrainian Cross -border cooperation (15 –17.11. 2017), in partners hip with University of
Rzeszów and Ivana Franca University from Lviv, funded by CBC Program PL -UA BY 2014 –
2020 (https://www.uzhnu.edu.ua).
118 The cycle of conferences reunited under the general theme Trans -Border Dialogue that started
to develop in 2014 and in whose framework are organized yearly conferences in partnership with
the University of Preńov, being financed by the Research Center of Slovak Foreign Policy
Association (https://www.uzhnu.edu.ua); the project Cross -Border Cooperation at the T ime of
Crisis on Neighbor‟s Soil (2015 –2016, coordinated by the University of Warsaw, in partnership
with Uzhhorod N. University, Research Center of Slovak Foreign Policy Association, Institute of
Ethnology of Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, Geographical Institut of Hungarian
Academy of Sciences, being funded by Visegrad Found (Cross -border Cooperation at the time of

41
with concerns in the field of study of the frontiers in Central and Eastern Europe, the
border region s development and the CBC119.
At Odessa I.I. Mechnikov National University, located in the southeast of the EU
border, are in the process of developing projects120 and research121 related to CBC, which
mainly refer to the collaboration between Ukraine, Romania a nd Moldova in the Danube
area122.
Looking at what has been achieved in Ukraine in research areas on the Eastern
border and the CBC, at this border there is a relatively optimistic evolution, started mainly
from its own impulses, where the action of internal drivers is most visible. There is also a
contribution of external drivers, especially from neighbouring countries through
partnerships, but we consider that it is still modest, w ith the exception of the Polish –
Ukrainian border in which there is a more cons istent activity. Regarding the contribution
of the EU, through funded research projects, aimed at the two topics – the Eastern border
and CBC at this border –, we find that it is modest in the period 2007 –2013123, following
an increasing trend between the years 2014 –2020124.
The Republic of Moldova, due to its size and the fact that the human resource is
concentrated almost entirely in the capital in Chisinau, offers some particularities
regarding the contribution to border research and cross -border cooperati on. First of all,
there is no contingent of researchers to develop border and CBC studies from the
perspective of European Studies, there are only disparate studies developed within the
Chișinău State University, the Institute of International Relations of the Republic of
Moldova or the B.P. Ha șdeu University from Cahul125. Even though it does not have as
direct concern the issue of borders or the CBC, we note a new perspective, from the
Association of Contemporary European Studies of Moldova (ECSA Moldova), which

Crisis on Neighbor‘s Soil, accessed November 14, 2018, http://www.migracje.uw.edu.pl/
projects/cross -border -cooperation -at-the-time-of-crisis-on-neighbors -soil-2/).
119 Members of the group: Miroslava Lendel, Mykolia Palincsak, Lesya Hazuda. Lesya Hazuda,
―Cross -Border Cooperation as Factor of Development of Bordering Territories,‖ International
Journal of New Economics and Social Sciences 1, no . 3 (2016): 193 –199.
120 Jean Monnet Project Module European Union and Ukraine Relations in Focus: Neighbours or
Members? (2013 –2016), coordinated by professor Sergey Yakubovskiy.
121 Olga Brusylovska, ― Cross -Border Cooperation of the EU with Ukraine,‖ in Gosp odarka w
Sieciach Relacji [Economy in network relationships], ed. R. Sobieck (Lublin: Katholic University
of Lublin, 2014), 57–64; Olga Brusylovska, ―The I dea of European Integration and the Cross –
Border Cooperation of Ukraine with the EU,‖ in Ukraine Anal ytica 4, no. 6 (2016): 44 –50.
122 Special by the Center for Regional Studies (a NGO), i.e. Ihor Studennikov, ― Cross -Border
Cooperation between Ukraine and Moldova: Achievements, Opportunities and Problems,‖ in
Danube Financing and Capacity Building Dialogue , Chișinău, 26 -27 September 2017, accessed
May 23, 2019, http://metis -vienna.eu/wp -content/uploads/2017/10/Igor -Studennikov -UA-MD-
CBCChisinau_26 -Oct-2017.pdf.
123 Among the 24 projects funded by Jean Monnet Program between 2007 –2013 only two are for
the universities in EU border area.
124 Among the 42 Jean Monnet projects between 2014 –2018, 10 are realised by universities in
border area.
125 Nicolae Dandis, ― Cross -Border Cooperation – A Strategic Dimension of European
Neighbourhood Policy at the Eastern Frontier of the EU,‖ in ― Europe and the Neighbourhood,‖
ed. Dorin I. Dolghi, Gilles Rouet, and Zsolt Radics, Eurolimes (Oradea: Oradea University Press)
7 (Spring 2007): 35–48.

42
developed projects126 and initiated research, which also addressed the issue of borders in
the wider area of the Eastern Partnership127.
Discussing the impact of drivers in stimulating these researches, on the one hand,
from the perspective of the intern al drivers we can see that there is little concern – a
reduced human resource with concerns in this direction, the environment in which the
socio -economic and cultural activity is little interested in these topics, the relative number
of CBC projects in wh ich is involved in the academic environment. From the perspective
of the external drivers we observe an ambivalent situation – there are very few European
projects that fund research of the Eastern border of the EU and the CBC that have been
accessed by th e entities from the Republic of Moldova; on the other hand, the entities
from the Republic of Moldova benefited from the expertise of the EU's academic
environment, in this direction, especially that of Romania.
Researches in Belarus on the Eastern border of the EU and the CBC are being
developed among the geographers. There is no research on these topics from the
perspective of European Studies, which here is confused with those in the political
sciences. Universities in the border area with the EU are inv olved in cross -border
projects128, with partners from Poland and Lithuania, but research in this thematic area and
confined to the field of European Studies are few129.
In conclusion to this subchapter, a few elements can be described:
First of all, there is a disproportion, on the whole of the Eastern border, in the area
established in the current research, between the general dynamics of the research in the
EU Member States neighbouring the Eastern border, in their favour, and the dyna mics of
the states located at the Eastern part of this border130. Starting from Białystok, Lublin and
Rzeszów in Poland; Preńov in Slovakia; Debrecen in Hungary; Oradea, Suceava, Ia și and
Gala ŝi in Romania we have 9 universities in which teams of researchers work together in
various fields who are involved in the development of cross -border projects and obviously
in border and CBC research. If we look at the neighbourhood beyond the border, we find

126 Jean Monnet Project: 564725 -EPP-1-2015 -1-MD-EPPJMO -SUPPA, Deepening Understanding,
Information and Communication of the European Union in the Eastern Partnership (2015 –2018).
127 Carlos E. Pacheco Amaral, Gaga Gabrichidze, Ioan Horga, Anatoliy K ruglashov, Ewa Latoszek,
Marta Pachocka, and Vasile Cucerescu, EU Relations with Eastern Partnership: Strategy,
Opportunities and Challenges (Chișinău -Chernivtsi -Tbilisi: Print -Caro, 2016); Carlos E. Pacheco
Amaral, Gaga Gabrichidze, Ioan Horga, Anatoliy K ruglashov, Ewa Latoszek, Marta Pachocka,
Vasile Cucerescu, EU Association Agreements with Georgia, Moldova and Ukraine: Through
Cooperation towards Integration (Chișinău -Chernivtsi -Tbilisi: Print -Caro, 2017); Carlos E.
Pacheco Amaral, Gaga Gabrichidze, Ioa n Horga, Anatoliy Kruglashov, Ewa Latoszek, Marta
Pachocka, Vasile Cucerescu, The European Union and the Eastern Partnership: The Security
Challenges (Chișinău -Chernivtsi -Tbilisi: ECSA Moldova, 2018).
128 Border Universities Network (established in 2013), pa rt of which are Baranavicki State
University (Belarus); A. S. Pushkin Brest State University (Belarus); Janka Kupala Grodno State
University (Belarus).
129 Alena E. Dastanka, Olga I. Chuprys, ―Euroregions as a Part of Trans -Border Cooperation of
Belarus: Legal and Sociological Aspects,‖ in Regional Formation and Development Studies 13,
no. 2 (2014): 16 –24; Alena E. Dostanko, ―Neighbouring Policy of the EU: Instruments of
Cooperation for Ukraine, Moldova and Belarus,‖ Belarusia n Journal of International Law and
International Relations no. 3 (2004): 39 –42.
130 As the title of this paper suggests, this research is focused on the development of these studies in
Russia, where there is a largely recognised school on borders and CBC.

43
an increased dynamic in Lviv, Chernivtsi and Uzhhorod, being affirmed in Odessa and
Chișinău.
Secondly, if we discuss the development of border research and cross -border
cooperation from the perspective of European studies, we can see that in the EU Member
States neighbouring the Eastern border, these researches exp erienced an emphasized
dynamic especially in Romania, through the universities of Ia și and Oradea, but also in
Poland, through the universities of Lublin and Rzeszów. In the neighbouring Eastern
states of the EU border, we observe that in Ukraine, the univ ersities of Lviv and
Chernivtsi are the most dynamic, but also those in Chi șinău, in Moldova.
Thirdly, when discussing the involvement of external drivers, in this case the
European Union, through the support of the ―Jean Monnet‖ program, we no te that this
disproportion acts, on the one hand, between neighbouring EU Member States on the
Eastern border, and on the other side between the neighbouring states. For example,
Romania, has the most important infrastructure in the development of research on the
study of borders and CBC on the Eastern border, from the perspective of European
studies, from all the Member States from this border, taking into account the universities
―Alexandru Ioan Cuza‖ of Ia și and the University of Oradea, which occupied in 2018 the
first and third places in the country in terms of the number of projects funded by Jean
Monnet. Over 80% of the projects funded in these universities are related to border
research and CBC. Also, ― Ștefan cel Mare‖ University in Suceava has developed in rece nt
years projects ―Jean Monnet‖ on the topic under discussion. By comparison, Poland,
Slovakia and Hungary do not have this research infrastructure created through projects
supported by the Jean Monnet Program.
Looking at the support from the ―Jean Monnet‖ program in the neighbouring
states of the Eastern border, we observe that, except for Ukraine, where there are 12
projects funded at universities at the border with the EU (the most active centre is Lviv),
from that only 4 are oriented towards the study o f the EU border to CBC, neither in
Moldova nor in Belarus have been financed projects specifically oriented to the topic
under discussion.
Finally, discussing the involvement of external drivers, in this case the EU
Member State neighbouring the Eastern border, by supporting Eastern actors in
development and research projects, we find a slightly contradictory situation, namely that,
although Romania has the most important infrastructure in the development of researches
on the study of the borders and the CBC at the Eastern border, from all the Member States
discussed, its contribution to the development of projects and research related to the
problems of the Eastern border and the CBC is similar to that of Poland. Only after 2010,
the Romanian universities mentioned above began to be active in development and
research projects with entities from Moldova and Ukraine.131 It is worth noting the

131 Jean Monnet Project, Multilateral Research Group Project ―Initiative and Constraint in the
Mapping of Evolving European Borders (ICMEEB),‖ 2011 –2013, coordinated by University of
Oradea; Jean Monnet Project 587848 -EPP-1-2017 -1-RO-EPPJMO -NETWORK (2017 –2020 ),
―European Union and Its N eighbourhood. Network for Enhancing EU‘s Actorness in the Eastern
Borderlands ( ENACTED),‖ coordinated by Alexandru Ioan Cuza University of Iași; The Jean
Monnet Project no. 599948 -EPP-1-2018 -1-UA-EPPJMO -SUPPA, ―Boosting L ocal Ec onomic
Growth in Border Regions in the Process of EU Integration: Best Practices of Eastern Partnership
(EaP) Countries‖ (2018 –2021), coordinated by Institute of Regional Research named after M.I.
Dolishnyj of National Academy of Science of Ukraine from Lv iv, in partnership with University
of Oradea.

44
involvement of the University of Preńov in research projects with the University of
Uzhhorod.

Conclusion
The rich scie ntific literature produced by the Western European schools with
concerns in the research of the problems of internal and external borders from the
conflicting one to the one of co -operation, on the one hand, and the experience
accumulated in the implementa tion of cross -border cooperation projects in all the fields
and which have served as support for theoretical reflection, on the other hand, offered not
only an important incentive for the academic environment in the countries in the process
of accession fr om Central and Eastern Europe, but also a methodological arsenal that
allowed its application to the specifics of the challenges in this region of Europe.
In the first part of the study we observed that the scientific accumulations in the
study of the bord ers of the Western Europe were made during almost half a century, where
different stages were covered, until this field enters the concerns of the specialists in
European Studies and which gives them a distinct dimension from the other traditional
fields o f study of this problem.
In the second part of the paper we tried to answer the question of the
existence of a sufficient background in the field of European Studies to speak of a
specific approach in the field of border studies and CBC. From going through this
subchapter we could find that there is a strong theoretical support, on the one hand,
regarding the approach of the CBC problem in the context of the Europeanization
of the countries of Central and Eastern Europe, which extends over a wide range
from the problem of conditionality to the problem of transformative power of EU.
On the other hand, this ambivalent and complementary vision, which was forged
especially in the sphere of the CBC practice at the internal borders of the EU, in
Central and Easter n Europe, in the two decades since the beginning of the
enlargement process until today, represents a good asset that is worth highlighting
in the research regarding the situation at the Eastern border of the EU. It was also
found that there is a strong me thodological support that would allow us to speak of
a specific approach in the field of border studies and CBC in terms of European
Studies.
In the third part of the paper we noted that in Central and Eastern Europe,
the accumulations in the field of Euro pean Studies were made, as opposed to those
in Western Europe, almost simultaneously with those in the monodisciplinary
fields (geography, history, economy, sociology, political sciences) or at a
relatively short distance of several years. A convergent exp losion of research on
border and cross -border cooperation between the monodisciplinary and
interdisciplinary fields of European Studies could be observed. The issue of
European borders and cross -border cooperation has gained scope in the context of
the beg inning of the negotiations for the accession of CEEC to the European
Union. From the perspective of European Studies, this issue, at least until the
accession of these states, was more of a multidisciplinary aspect (especially the
researches of the History of European Integration, European Economy, Political
Science and European Public Administration, etc.), in which each field advances
its own set of knowledge tools.

45
The second part of this chapter has highlighted how the experience of the
candidate countr ies of Central and Eastern Europe, which became member states in the
EU after 2004 –2007, in the field of border studies and cross -border cooperation from the
perspective of European Studies, play a stimulating role in the development of
competences, instit utes and specific mentalities in the states located at the Eastern side of
the EU border.
If, on the one hand, the academic environment in the states located to the east of
the EU border has taken from their neighbours methods, practices and knowledge that
they have adapted to the socio -economic environment of the region, on the other hand, the
same environment is caught up in research projects with specialists in border issues from
established schools in Western Europe.
As a result of this East -West symbio sis, a mechanism of osmotic transfer of rules,
values and knowledge has been put in place, which produces important mutations in the
direction of the integration of the academic environment from these East -European states
into the European education and kn owledge space in general and the one concerning the
role of Cross -Border Cooperation, in particular.

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