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The Strasbourg - Ortenau Eurodistrict: Establishment, missions, operation, results
REIMANN, Leon Karl-Heinz
The Strasbourg-Ortenau Eurodistrict is located in the geographical region the Upper Rhine. This cross-border area shared by part of Switzerland, Germany and France has numerous cross-border bodies at all levels of governance. The purpose of this Master thesis is to analyse the development of the Eurodistrict and its integration into existing cooperation bodies. It will show how it has become essential to local cross-border cooperation action and how it has become a laboratory of innovation for cross-border cooperation in Europe.
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The Influence of Cross-border Cooperation on the competitiveness of Euroregions
COUSSI, Ann-Charlotte
The aim of this thesis is to analyze the influence of cross-border cooperation on the competitiveness of border regions, here Franco-German. For this purpose, the study focuses on two European integration models located on the eastern part of France on the border with Germany: Euroregion TriRhena and Eurodis-trict Pamina. The influence of cross-border cooperation on the competitiveness of Euroregions and Eurodistricts is analyzed through the presentation and evalua-tion of the organization, objectives, areas of competences as well as through the actions and funding of these organizations. The activities and the results of the two chosen examples are compared with respect to beneficial and unfavorable outcomes that may result, revealing also the development opportunities provided by each structure. After presentation of the theoretical context, different forms of cross-border cooperation and the European framework recommended for the integration models are outlined. Finally, discussions around the concept of com-petitiveness are reported. In a second part, the methodological approach includ-ing the choice of the case studies, the data collected and the analysis criteria, is outlined. In a third part, results are compared, evaluated and discussed in order to answer the research question: Does cross-border cooperation improve the competitiveness of Euroregions and Eurodistricts?
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RadioEurodistrict (RED) - History of the First French-German online radio (2004)
WALKER, Thomas
This paper has considered the history of the Radioeurodistrict (RED) which led to the difficulty of defining the concepts of Eurodistricts and Euroregions. A literature review was undertaken initially, and further information provided by a semi-structured interview with the general secretary of the Strasbourg-Ortenau Eurodistrict (the focus area). In order to understand the objectives to create a Eurodistrict the history of an established Eurégio (Germany-Netherlands) was examined as well as a Euroregion of the Centre-east of Europe (Poland-Czech Republic). The consideration of the history of war and conflict in these European regions further facilitated the understanding of the motivations which are shown to have changed over time. Since the main focus of this paper is the SOE, the motivations to form this Eurodistrict and its specific projects were described. By considering the functioning and administration of these regions, their complexity was examined. The SOE as an EGTC was addressed in relation to the finance and the administration and the role of INTERREG was discussed. The interview greatly enhanced the understanding of the functioning of the SOE. Reasons for the failure of RED radio were surmised and failure of the Eurodistricts examined. Some evidence of failure was provided by newspaper articles from as recent as this year as well as the interviewee who spoke of some of her difficulties. In order to improve future study, weaknesses in the questions asked are addressed and further research ideas put forward.
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