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P. Hirschler, T. Dillinger:
"TOGETHER WE STAND - UNITED WE WIN? EUREGIO`s between Austria and it`s CEEC neighboring countries";
Vortrag: XVI AESOP CONGRESS, Volos; 10.07.2002 - 15.07.2002; in: "XVI AESOP CONGRESS", (2002), S. 18.

Austria had been situated on a "dead" border for more than 50 years. By opening up the borders a new economic and cultural attitude arises in the regions. At the external border of the European Union towards the Middle and Eastern European countries numerous EUREGIOs were formed after the fall of the Iron Curtain. EUREGIOs arose after the Second World War at the German borders in order to promote confidence between former enemies and in order to match common interests.The border regions still suffer from various problems like for example weaknesses in structure, which can not be solved by promoting "classic" infrastructure, like roads, railways and border crossings. The access towards information, contact addresses and the knowledge about the neighbours has to be improved. Also in the border triangle Weinviertel-South Moravia-West Slovakia the EUREGIO idea is put into practice. The Weinviertel has one of the lowest gross domestic products of Lower Austria. The birth rate is negative. There are few jobs in this region, the working population commutes to the conurbation Vienna. In the neighbouring areas of South Moravia and West Slovakia the situation is quite similar. It is essential that the participating regions consider the EUREGIO as a common development chance.Cross border cooperation has become very important for the regions in Lower Austria particularly from the programs INTERREG and PHARE CBC. Therefore the regional managements merged together in the network project "EUREGIO forum" to improve the quality and efficiency of cross border activities in Lower Austria. The paper describes the activities of this platform, which provides several services like advanced training in cross border management, international conferences and symposiums, information service or a price for innovative cross border projects.