European Seminar on Democratic Governance of Cross-border Areas - Council of Europe

22-23 October 2015., Saint Louis, France

The coordinator of the AEBR Center for Balkans, Ms. Ana Nikolov, participated in the European Seminar on democratic governance of cross-border areas that was held 22-23 October 2015 in Saint-Louis (France). The seminar was organized by the Council of Europe with the collaboration of the City of Saint-Louis, the Trinational Eurodistrict Basel, the Mission Opérationnelle Transfrontalière (France) and the Institute of International Sociology of Gorizia (Italy). Representatives of member States from the European Committee on Democracy and Governance of the Council of Europe as well as transfrontier cooperation bodies, institutes, practitioners and experts took part in the discussions. The seminar concluded that effective and active participation of citizens offers real support to the realisation of cross-border projects. Information given to the citizens and consultation of citizens, as they are the ultimate beneficiaries of any cross-border cooperation initiative, remain a guarantee of transparency and legitimacy in the decision-making process and of taking into consideration the particularities of each border context.