Institute of the Development of Self-Government and Polish-Hungarian cooperation

Facing up to a current need to pursue international cooperation by self-government entities, the Institute of the Development of self-Government have initiated some actions aiming at developing Polish-Hungarian cooperation. The Institute has implemented 2 projects with the W. Felczak Institute of the Polish-Hungarian Cooperation.

The project “The model of the Polish-Hungarian self-government cooperation” made it possible to carry out a study on the status of cooperation between local government institutions from 5 regions (Lubelskie, Świętokrzyskie, Podlaskie, Podkarpackie and Malopolskie) with the Hungarian partners. The results of the study have been presented in the report issued by the Scientific Association of the John Paul II Catholic University of Lublin and within the conference concluding the project, which was held on 29 November 2020.

The second undertaking was the project “The concept of the Polish-Hungarian self-government cooperation  as an instrument of regional development”. Its main aim is to prepare a tool, which will support self-government international cooperation between Poland and Hungary. In this context a platform has been created to facilitate establishing contacts and cooperation between partners from Poland and Hungary https://viacarpatia.net/. Local governments from Poland and Hungary can place there information concerning cultural or tourism events and initiate self-government cooperation. Polish regions engaged in creation of the portal: Lubelskie, Podlaskie, Podkarpackie, Świętokrzyskie and Małopolskie. On the Hungarian side the following regions have been involved: Borsod-Abauj-Zemplen, Miszkolc, HajduBihar, Debreczyn, Szabolcs-Szatmar-Bereg, Nyiregyhaza, Heves and  Eger. An innovative solution is concentrating the activities on the trail along the Via Carpathia route (in Poland in the direction to Kraków and Wrocław and in Hungary in the western direction – Budapest/Balaton and to the south – Pest). Even though the project has been completed, works on the portal are being continued and will be carried on in 2021-2022 in order to increase the number of local governments present on the platform.