Whose partnership? Regional participatory arrangements in CBC programming on the Finnish–Russian border^*

* This paper is a considerably reworked and extended version of a preliminary study presented by the same authors at the Arseniev Conference ‘Problems in Economic Geography and Spatial Development Statistics’, University of Petrozavodsk (24 October 2014) and published in the conference proceedings under the title ‘Whose Partnership? Regional participatory arrangements in the programming of ENPI CBC—the case of Karelia at the Finnish–Russian border’. This paper is partly based on research commissioned by the Joint Managing Authority of the Karelia CBC Programme, carried out by the authors between November 2013 and February 2014.

ABSTRACT

Cross-border cooperation (CBC) serves as a tool to combat peripherality of border regions and integrate formerly disconnected borderlands. Resting on the principles of partnership and multi-level governance, CBC activities are deemed by the European Union (EU) to include local/regional authorities, economic and social partners at various stages of the cooperation process. Even at the EU's external borders, where EU regional development principles of CBC are endorsed in an often uneasy combination with external policy principles, joint cross-border administrative arrangements and regional programme designs have been introduced through successive administrative reforms. Analysing the preparations for the European Neighbourhood Instrument Karelia CBC (2014–2020), it is argued that in order to promote regional development goals the priorities of CBC programmes should be in line with the aims of local/regional stakeholders, which requires resilient consultation and participatory processes throughout the programming cycle. Participant observation of the Finnish–Russian Karelia CBC programme preparations helped the authors pinpoint achievements and weaknesses of current joint programming solutions and investigate ways in which the partnership principle is put into practice in the preparatory processes. In the current political climate, it is interesting to note that CBC was not included by the EU or Russia in sanctions/countersanctions that were the result of the crisis in Ukraine.

KEYWORDS:

• Cross-border cooperation
• partnership principle
• stakeholder participation
• programming
• Karelia CBC

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Funding

Gleb Yarovoy's work has been supported by the Strategic Development Programme of Petrozavodsk State University, 2012–2016.

Notes

* This paper is a considerably reworked and extended version of a preliminary study presented by the same authors at the Arseniev Conference ‘Problems in Economic Geography and Spatial Development Statistics’, University of Petrozavodsk (24 October 2014) and published in the conference proceedings under the title ‘Whose Partnership? Regional participatory arrangements in the programming of ENPI CBC—the case of Karelia at the Finnish–Russian border’. This paper is partly based on research commissioned by the Joint Managing Authority of the Karelia CBC Programme, carried out by the authors between November 2013 and February 2014.

1. Detailed information, including strategic documents, action plans, evaluation reports, etc., are available from the website of Ministry for Foreign Affairs of Finland (Section ‘Publications of neighbouring area cooperation') at: http://formin.finland.fi/public/default.aspx?contentid=99562&nodeid=39043&contentlan=2&culture=en-US.

2. On the role and functions of public councils in Russian politics see, for example, Taylor (2011, pp. 141–244); Klitsounova (2008, p. 9); Semukhina and Reynolds (2013, p. 247). An example is the public council of the Russian Ministry of Internal Affairs, which has information available in English at https://en.mvd.ru/Public_Council.