Euroregionų veiklos organizavimas Lietuvoje

• Mažylis, Liudas
• Bartkutė, Ausma
• Tirvienė, Jovita

LTStraipsnyje atlikta sisteminė euroregionu veiklos analizė, aprėpianti visus šešis šio tipo darinius, veikiančius Lietuvoje. Autoriai įvairių tipologijų požiūriu analizuoja šių darinių, paremtų kooperatyvaus valdymo koncepcija, vietą Europos Sąjungos remiamo bendradarbiavimo abipus sienos kontekste. Išskirti Lietuvoje veikiančių euroregionų valdymo struktūros tipai. Aptarta euroregionų veiklos strateginio organizavimo svarba, jų finansavimo tolydumas bei dalyvavimo Europos Sąjungos paramos projektuose problemos. [Iš leidinio]Reikšminiai žodžiai: Euroregionai; Bendradarbiavimas; INTERREG; PHARE; Euroregions; Cross-border cooperation; INTERREG; PHARE.

ENThe cross-border cooperation, in common sense, can be understood as cooperation in political, human and economic dimensions. Two or more neighbour administrative governments (region and/or local government) cooperate along the borders. This concept defines the cooperation not only among the EU member states' borders, it includes the external EU borders, too. The increased international role of local and regional government is another very important reason of cooperation along the borders. Quickly growing globalisation processes constantly overstep traditional borders of states. These processes challenge the effectiveness of the national policy. The national government is not also allowed to seek for its purposes because of globalisation processes. This has rather a negative impact on the state's power. New programmes of the European Union can be identified as the next clement of cooperation along the borders. The aim of these programmes is, to support cross-border cooperation along borders. One of the main initiatives of the EU, that promote cooperation, was the INTERREG programme founded in 1990. The budget of the INTERREG programme is given to particular frontier territories and to specific activities. A lot of cooperation structures along the borders have been founded during the last 50 years. Nevertheless, there is not a well-established typology of such structures. The Association of European Border Regions (AEBR) supposes that the activity of euro-regions always should be focused on cooperation along the borders, but not on the development of a separate national frontier region. One of the main goals of the Euroregions' initiators is the incorporation of different actors (politicians, economic and social partners, nongovernmental organizations, various institutions) into their cooperation.AEBR distinguishes three different types of cooperation along the borders: euroregions and similar structures, that have common features but differ in forms of activities; structures that were founded to administrate INTERREG or other EU programmes; "work communities" - in such structures members are the regional governmental institutions. The legal background of cooperation was created after several international agreements have been signed. The Convention on Cross-border Cooperation among territorial communities and government institutions was signed in Madrid in 1980. The right of local government to have possibility to cooperate with partners from other side is declared in the European Charter of Local Government in 1985. Participation of Lithuanian municipalities in euro-regions is defined in Law of Local Government of Lithuania's Republic. The establishment of Euroregions in Lithuania is neither encouraged nor limited by the state policies at this time. The right to participate in Euroregions is secured by the Law on Local Self-Government. The highest managing bodies in all Lithuanian Euroregions are councils that coordinate the activities of the remaining bodies (Nemunas, Saulė, Baltija councils consist of 12 members, Bartuva council - up to 16, and Ežerų kraštas - 15 members). The President institution is foreseen in the Statutes of the Saulė, Bartuva and Baltija Euroregions. One of the main functions of the President is to represent Euroregions. The Euroregion "Ežerų kraštas" has a different organizational structure than others. The main institutions of this Euroregion are: Council, Directorates, Secretariat and Working groups. The Directorate is an executive and administrative institution fulfilling the functions of Council and National secretariat.One of the reasons of the different organizational structure of the Euroregion "Ežerų kraštas" could be named as the active inititial work of the partners from Norway, which is not the EU member. Only one euro-region ("Ežerų kraštas") from the six ones has a prepared development strategy for the period 2002-2007. The representatives of other Eurorcgions recognize that a development strategy is necessary for their effective work. In 2003 the Euroregion "Saulė" initiated the preparation of its strategy. The year 2004 seems to be crucial for two other Euroregions in Lithuania: "Baltija" and "Nemunas" have started the projects supported by INTERREG III funding in order to prepare long-term strategics. Neither the Lithuania's nor the EU budget directly finances the Euroregions' activities. There are two ways of the Euroregions' activities financing: financial contributions and project implementation; or project implementation only. Based on this, all Euroregions in Lithuania could be divided into two groups: first group (Euroregions "Nemunas", "Ežerų kraštas" and "Bartuva") - the activities are financed from financial contributions, grants and other resources of all euro-region members; second group (Euroregions "Saulė", "Baltija", "Šešupė") - the activities are financed from different projects. The Euroregions' activities are based on project implementation. The Euroregion "Nemunas" has implemented more than 60 international projects for more than 4 million euros. [From the publication]