Cross-border cooperation on the external borders of the EU and the impact of the received EU CBC funds on AP Vojvodina/Serbia

Abstract

The paper presents the various network types between municipalities/settlements within a single project program and at the level of all other analysed border programs in EU border regions that are components of European Territorial Cooperation. It also shows examples of prosperous cross-border networks (Serbia-Hungary, Serbia-Croatia, Serbia-Romania, Serbia-Bulgaria) of interested communities: what positions they have and what the weight of the border settlements is in the network of cooperation in horizontal sense. Furthermore, it discusses differences of network types of cross-border cooperation of municipalities based on financial assistance from EU, IPA funds (2007-2013) in Vojvodina/Serbia as a border region at the external border of EU. The paper tries to define its spatial differentiation on the basis of number of applications and the amount of financial aid, as well as to present different degrees of involvement of border municipalities/settlements in cross-border cooperation with the municipalities of the neighbouring EU regions.