The LUPS-CESCI Research Group at TEIN’s strategic workshop

The TEIN (Transfrontier Euro-Institute Network) including research and training institutes focusing on cross-border cooperation held a seminar and a strategic workshop in the capital of the German speaking community of Belgium, on 3 and 4 May of 2024. The LUPS-CESCI Research Group was represented by Zsuzsanna Fejes and Gyula Ocskay at the event where proposals determining the future of the network have been made.

The TEIN network uniting 20 partners from 12 countries was established in 2010 with the aim of promoting the development activities in border areas through research and capacity building activities. The Euro-Institut in Kehl provides the partners with administrative and coordination background enabling the operation of the network. At the last general assemblies of the initiative the need for further development of the network was generated which has been catalysed by the intention of involving the academic sphere in policy making repeated several times at different events by the European Commission. On the 3rd and 4th of May, the representatives of 11 members of the TEIN gathered in Eupen upon the invitation of the president of the Association of European Border Regions (AEBR), Mr Karl-Heinz Lambertz, to discuss these development opportunities.

The two-day event started with a seminar whose subject was the intercultural dimension of the border areas’ resilience. This was the topic discussed by the speakers invited by the Jean Monnet Centre of Excellence of the University of Strasbourg, highlighting the characteristics of the border regions as the meeting points of diverse administrative, legal, linguistic and cultural frameworks.

The strategic planning workshop was held on the second day following the so-called ’world-café’ model when the participants exchanged their ideas on the positioning, functioning and structure, as well as the funding of the network in three groups. The lessons learnt will be discussed at the next general assembly of TEIN but it already seems to be clear that, actually, the partners are not interested in modifying the loose frames of cooperation. At the same time the diversity and the knowledge of the partners are considered appropriate for becoming a kind of „think-and-do-tank” on CBC of the European Union. Furthermore, there is a serious need to get to know each other’s activities and achievements better, and, based on these, to initiate joint events, research and projects.

In the context of the design of the multiannual financial framework beyond 2028, the participants agreed that the TEIN will contribute to the EU discourse promoting the results and values of Interreg through a manifesto and a policy paper. The compilation of the former document will be coordinated by Martín Guillermo-Ramírez, secretary general of AEBR, the second one by Gyula Ocskay representing the UPS-CESCI research group.

Further discussion of the strategic matters is expected to take place at the TEIN network’s annual conference and general assembly to be held in September in Maastricht.