Analysis of the impacts of the border-related measures on cross-border territories and communities

• Author: Rubio, Jean; Peyrony, Jean; Viaggi, Raffaele
• Pages: 54-109

54

II.CHAPTER 2:

ANALYSIS OF THE IMPACTS OF THE BORDER-

RELATED MEASURES ON CROSS-BORDER

TERRITORIES AND COMMUNITIES

A.Introduction and methodology

The objective of this chapter is to outline and analyse in-depth the immediate

impact of border-related measures on cross-border communities, illustrating these

effects with a variety of example from different EU border regions.

More specifically, this chapter investigates the impact of these measures on six

domains:

To successfully lead this assignment, 21 interviews corresponding to 20 EU borders

were conducted between mid-July and August 2020. The list of interviewees can

be found in the table below.

While selecting interviewees, different criteria were taken into account:

Borders where diverging strategies to tackle the pandemic at national level

had been taken (e.g. DK-SE)

Border region where the pandemic hit hardest on one side than on the other,

provoking hospital beds saturation (e.g. FR-DE)

Borders around Northern Italy, epicentre of the pandemic in Europe, where

neighbouring countries where the first to react (e.g. IT-CH; IT-AT; etc.)

A diversity of stakeholders, corresponding not only to CB structures, but

also transport companies, small border municipalities, emergency services,

info points, etc.

55

N.

Border

Interviewee

Structure

1

CZ-AT

Siegfried Weinert

Austrian Red Cross

2

IE-UK

Anthony Soares

Centre for Cross-border studies

3

AT-IT

Matthias Fink

EGTC Euroregion Tyrol-South Tyrol-

Trentino

4

IT-SI

Ivan Curzolo

EGTC GO

5

FR-ES

Arola Urdangarin

EGTC NAEN

6

BE-NL

Stuey Hamelink

Euregio Scheldemond

7

CZ-DE

Ruediger Kubsch

Euroregion Elbe-Labe

8

ES-PT

Xosé Lago

Euroregion Galicia-Norte de Portugal

9

DE-PL

Carsten Jacob

Euroregion Spree-Neiße-Bober

10

HU-RO

Tünde Kresz

Gate to Europe EGTC

11

NL-DE

Sonja Adamsky ; Linda Blom

GrenzInfoPunkt EUREGIO

12

HU-AT

Szilárd Kövesdi

GYESEVE director

13

RO-BG

Bogdan Musat

Joint Secretariat RoBg/ CBC

(Calarasi, RO)

14

HU-SK

Vince Kis

Mayor of Rajka

15

HU

Ferenc Horváth

MMÖNK president

16

HR-HU

Dr. Ágota Nagyné

Mura Régió EGTC

17

SI-HU

Bálint Papp

Muraba EGTC

18

DK-SE

Sandra Forsén

ÖresundDirekt

19

IT-CH

Francesco Quattrini

Regio Insubrica

20

DE-DK

Peter Hansen

Region Sønderjylland-Schleswig

21

PL-CZ-

DE

Hynek Böhm

Technical University of Liberec (CZ)

Additionally, regarding the case-studies along the French borders, the report is

based on the paper published by MOT in June 2020, entitled "La crise du Covid-19

aux frontières françaises". This analysis is the result of a call for experiences issued

to all of its members. More than 20 members of the MOT’s network have voluntarily

contributed by responding to a very detailed questionnaire.

56

1. Mapping of the cross-border case studies covered within this assignment

CONTEXT OF THE ASSIGNMENT

This report was written during August 2020, in a time when the coronavirus -

despite a lower incidence compared to the spring- was still active in Europe. It is

hard to predict if new border closures will occur in the weeks or months to come

as a consequence of a possible ‘second wave’. However, a first sign was sent by

Hungary on August 28th,

30when the member state announced a second border

shutdown for all foreigners starting from the 1st September 2020.

The pandemic situation was very different in terms of incidence but also in terms

of temporality depending on the region. According to Eurostat31, preliminary data

from 24 European countries show that there were around 160 000 more deaths

from March to May 2020 than the average number of deaths during the same

period in 2016 to 2019.

30https://www.politico.eu/article/coronavirus-hungary-to-close-borders-starting-september-1/

31 Weekly death statistics, Data extracted on 21 July 2020. https://ec.europa.eu/eurostat/statistics-

explained/index.php?title=Weekly_death_statistics&stable#Dramatic_rise_in_deaths_in_early_spring