The catalysts of cross-border cooperation development in Euroregions

Abstract

The research problem of the paper concerns multiple catalysts for the development of cross-border cooperation in Euroregions, and in particular their impact on public institutions and NGOs. The aim of the paper is to determine whether in a specific Euroregion environment, cooperating public institutions and non-governmental organizations are affected by similar or different catalysts for the development of cross-border cooperation. Based on the literature review as well as desk research analyze, the theoretical part of the paper presents three key sets of catalysts for the development of cross-border cooperation, related to: the adopted model of cooperation; cooperating organizations; implemented cross-border activities. In order to solve the paper's research problem the qualitative research were conducted. The co-authors analysed the results of focus group interviews and a survey conducted on a group of 100 Polish and Czech respondents developing cross-border cooperation in the Polish and Czech part of the Beskidy Euroregion were used. The sets of catalysts: "the model of cooperation", "the resources and potential of partners" refer in a universal way to the processes of development of cross-border cooperation, while the third set - joint activities of partners is strongly correlated with Euroregional determinants. The analysis confirms that for non-governmental organizations the strong catalysts for the development of cross-border cooperation are the resources and potentials of the cooperating organizations and joint activities of the partners, while the set including the cooperation model is not important. On the other hand, in the case of public institutions, the cooperation model and the resources and potentials of cooperating organizations can be considered weak catalysts, while the set including joint activities of partners is not important.