ARTICLE
ABSTRACT
This paper in the first place briefly introduces the emerging issue of cross-border regions throughout Western and Eastern Europe and discusses the definition of cross-border cooperation. Secondly, it analyzes the development of joint institutional mechanisms for the design and monitoring of cross-border regional policies in all relevant fields including the cooperation in the field of statistics. Thirdly, the paper will describe in more detail the institutional and practical organization of the Statistical Observatory of the Geneva cross-border region. The Observatory was formally established in 2001 by the France-Geneva Regional Committee, the governance committee of the Geneva cross-border region, and produces more than 50 socio-economic and environmental indicators for a cross-border urban area of more than 800,000 inhabitants over two countries: 1/3 in France and 2/3 in Switzerland with close to 75,000 cross-border workers. The paper presents some important indicators produced by the observatory and concludes with major achievements and remaining challenges.
REFERENCES
MARKUS PERKMANN, Cross-border regions in Europe, in European urban regional studies 2003 (10:153): http://eur.sagepub.com/content/10/2/153.
JEN NELLES and OLIVIER WALTHER, Changing European borders: from separation to interface? An introduction, in Articulo - Journal of Urban research 6/2011: http://articulo.revues.org/1658.
URSZULA ROMAN, Cross-border region in Europe: An impediment or opportunity? A case of German-Polish and Slovakian-Polish border, UACES Student Forum 11 Annual Conference University of Bath, 29-30 April 2010: http://www.uws.ac.uk/schoolsdepts/business/cces/documents/BathConferencePaper.pdf
