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 |
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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.
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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.
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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,
30 when 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.
30 https://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
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