Importance of cross-border service provision along the borders of Hungary

Roland Hesz

As much as 76% of Hungary can be considered as a border area, according to the total size of the NUTS 3 level territorial units (counties) that share international border sections with one of the neighbouring countries. As a result, people living along state borders are doubly disadvantaged in terms of access to quality public services, compared to their fellow citizens living in the middle of the country.

On the one hand, due to international borders, which often do not take into account actual and potential settlement connections, the inhabitants of rural and peripheral border areas, which have lost their natural centre, simply live too far away from the nearest functionally rich centres within the country.

the cross-border sharing of central functions could significantly improve the quality of life of people living on both sides of Hungary?s borders, and at the same time lead to economies of scale that are more favourable for all sides.

On the other hand, on the other side of the border, they would find settlement functions of a higher level of hierarchy within a reasonable distance, if their use or availability were not hindered by the state border.

Accessibility plays an important role here; extensive rural areas with fewer functional services could reach and benefit from urban functions that are not available in the settlements of the catchment area. Therefore, quality problems could be solved by better integration of the core towns and surrounding areas.

In another case, the urban centre near the border cannot economically maintain its central functions in adequate quality and quantity because it can only count on the service market of a truncated catchment area due to the state border.

Yet another related aspect of service provision is sustainability; the urban centres could better manage and develop their high-level functions (e.g. hospitals, secondary schools, universities) and high functional density by attracting additional people (patients, students, customers, etc.) from the surrounding hinterland.

There are numerous examples of both cases along the Hungarian borders (on all sides). Therefore, the cross-border sharing of central functions could significantly improve the quality of life of people living on both sides of Hungary's borders, and at the same time lead to economies of scale that are more favourable for all sides.

The specific settlement network around Hungary's borders highlighted the need for new forms of territorial and governance cooperation. While in Western Europe, cross-border cooperation in the provision of services began as early as the 1950s and developed considerably in the 1980s (see Tornio - Haparanda on the Swedish-Finnish border), in Central and Eastern Europe, this type of functional cooperation did not spread until the 1990s. The series of historical changes that are still quite recent (e.g. accession to the EU, integration into the Schengen area) have promoted the increasing permeability of borders, which has influenced the emergence of a spatial policy based on cross-border functional urban areas (FUAs). The coordinated development of urban functions, taking into account common and complementary features, and the management of the centres and their hinterland create a new situation in terms of regional and urban development and planning.

Focusing only on the Hungarian-Slovak CBC programme area (eligible area), nine FUAs have been formulated from Bratislava to Košice, and Sátoraljaújhely. One subtype is the urban catchment area (e.g. the cross-border agglomeration of the Slovak capital, Bratislava), the second is the twin cities (Komárom-Komárno, Esztergom-Štúrovo), while the third is the network type, where small and medium-sized towns form the given FUA and share their services.

One of the biggest innovations that could overcome the above-mentioned challenges at the settlement network level and provide an institutionalised framework for the FUA logic is, among others, the European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation (EGTCs). EGTCs are one of the most important instruments for the development and provision of cross-border services. By setting up an EGTC, the grouping can have its own staff and budget, and maintain its own institutions and services (e.g. a hospital).

Social services and care for the elderly proved to be one of the most popular themes of the EGTCs, representing the third largest budget of the EGTCs with EUR 15.6 million, based on the data of the projects implemented and in progress, between 2010 and 2022. For example, the Interreg project of the Ipoly-Valley EGTC (abbreviated as IpOLD) has developed municipal kitchens. At the same time, the MOTIVAGE Interreg project in the MURABA EGTC region is improving the quality of life of the elderly by setting up home care and preventive health services.

Public transport is almost the only exception where cross-border public services have been implemented along the borders of Hungary (e.g. the train between Rajka and Bratislava, the bus lines of Komárom-Komárno and Esztergom-Štúrovo, the bike-sharing services of the EGTCs Pons Danubii and Ister-Granum). In the field of health care, a good example is the Mária Valéria Hospital in Esztergom which also serves Slovakian patients.

Roland Hesz, chief analyst, Central European Service for Cross-Border Initiatives (CESCI)