Cross-Border Cooperation: A Rare Case of Constructive EU-Russia Engagement

The goal of this webinar is to build awareness of cross-border cooperation as a rare case of constructive engagement between the European Union (EU) and Russia against the background of a bilateral relationship that resides in deep crisis. The aim is to share best practices to better understand how EU-Russia cross-border cooperation works on the ground and what drives its success.

In the past few years, the relations between the European Union and Russia have experienced a major decline and resulted in a complex political situation with low trust from both sides. Constructive dialogue tends to overshadowed by official communication, which is often dominated by mutual accusations, yes-no arguments and backed up by the media narratives taken over by public opinion.[1]

Currently, the EU’s policy towards Russia is based on five guiding principles. One of them is ‘selective engagement’, which implies that cooperation with Russia remains possible on certain foreign policy issues of common interest.[2] Among other things, this approach enables to maintain practical cooperation in the format of the Northern Dimension, Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) Programmes, as well as in the framework of regional inter-governmental organisations (e.g. the Council of the Baltic Sea States, the Barents Euro-Arctic Council). All in all, the ‘wider’ northern Europe region (which includes several EU Member States and Russia) has resulted in a number of institutionalised fora for international, multilateral, and intergovernmental cross-border cooperation. This approach could be seen as a good example for collaborations, contributing to political stability and functional cooperation between state and non-state actors.[3]

Cross-border cooperation with Russia is also enabled by the EU under the fifth principle of the EU’s ‘five principles’. The fifth principle spells out the need to support Russian civil society and engage in people-to-people contacts.[4] In a context of strained diplomatic and political relations, the EU has invested significantly in strengthening societal ties through student exchanges, civil society cooperation, research and cross-border cooperation. CBC programmes play an important role in EU-Russia regional cooperation and provide added value for neighbouring regions. The current CBC programmes 2014-2020 will soon be replaced by a new generation of programmes in the framework of the European Neighbourhood Policy (ENP) and the Cohesion Policy for the period 2021-2027. It is expected that the programmes will also contribute to joint priorities and increase focus on Arctic cooperation.[5]

_{[1] Franco, 2018, p. 15}

_{[2] Bossuyt & Van Elsuwege, 2021.}

_{[3] Heininen, 2017, p. 439}

_{[4] Bossuyt & Van Elsuwege, 2021.}

_{[5] Joint paper on Interreg NEXT Strategic Programming 2021 – 2027, p. 16}

10:00-10:05   

Welcome Remarks

10.05-11.00     

Keynote Lecture: EU-Russia Cross-Border Cooperation: Evolution in a Challenging Environment

• Alexander Sergunin
  • Professor, Department of International Relations, School of International Relations, St. Petersburg State University

11:15-12:45     

Panel 1: Best Practises and Concrete Examples of EU-Russia Cross-Border Cooperation     

• Elizaveta Druzhinina
  • Project Manager, Culture Open: Creating Culture Together (Karelia ENI CBC)
•  Jukka-Pekka Bergman 
  • Programme Manager, South-East Finland – Russia CBC Programme
• Simona Pohlová
  • ENI CBC Team leader, European Commission, DG Regional and Urban Policy

12:45-13:30

Lunch Break

13:30-15:00     

Which Lessons for EU-Russia Relations?

• Andrey Makarychev
  • Professor, Johan Skytte Institute of Political Studies, University of Tartu
• Marc Franco
  • Senior Associate Fellow, EGMONT Royal Institute for International Relations
• Krzysztof Kirdzik 
  • Head of Russian Federation Section, Eastern Department, Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the Republic of Poland

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