Esztergom - Štúrovo

The cities of Esztergom (30 261 inhabitants) and Štúrovo (11 290 inhabitants) are located on the Hungarian-Slovak border, which is marked by the rivers Danube and Ipoly/Ipel. Together, with other towns (Dorog, Nyergesújfalu, Lábatlan...) they form a conurbation (about 90.000 inhabitants) which is the centre of the cross-border Euroregion Ister-Granum, composed by 102 municipalities, of about 218 000 inhabitants. The Hungarian side, more urbanised and inhabited (69% of the population of Euroregion) contrasts with the Slovakian side, with small villages except from two towns (Štúrovo and Želiezovce).

Esztergom and Štúrovo (Hungarian: Párkány) were twinned towns in the Hungarian Kingdom from the 11th century and after in the Austria-Hungary Empire. The two towns have belonged to two separate states since 1920 following the peace treaties ending World War I (Štúrovo to Czechoslovakia since 1992 and then to Slovakia; Esztergom to Hungary). Nowadays, Hungarians are the largest ethnic minority of Slovakia (9,7% of the population). They are mostly concentrated in the southern part of the country, like in the Slovakian part of the Euroregion of the population.

The rebuilding of the Maria Valeria Bridge in 2001, destroyed during the World War II, is the starting point of the recent integration of the two towns in a cross-border area. Since this date, the number of cross-border flows deeply increased in both ways, especially concerning the workers. Today, about 2500 persons of Štúrovo cross the border everyday to work in Esztergom (mainly in the Suzuki factory).

The economic situation is pretty good and the two parts of the Euroregion are complementary. The Hungarian side of the border, more industrialised and urbanised, concentrates job places and has a light unemployment rate (less than 5% in 2008). With 6000 employees (2300 Slovaks), Magyar Suzuki is the first employer of the euroregion (besides, the Japanese company has organized its own bus network to for the employees devoid of personal vehicles). The Slovak side is a more rural area, with small villages and a higher unemployment rate (10%) but decreasing since 2001. However, the railway station of Štúrovo, which was the second biggest in Slovakia for freight transport in 1988 should benefit of its situation for the use of the local plants, among them Suzuki.

At the local level, Esztergom is a municipality. In Hungary, Municipalities are the basic units of the system and are organized by settlements, which in Hungary include villages, cities and cities with county rights (Esztergom doesn’t have this right). The municipalities benefit today from a considerable degree of autonomy. Municipal governments are no longer subordinated to county governments; notably, a county cannot overrule the decisions of a municipality. Main tasks of the municipalities are local development, urban planning, protection of the environment, housing, public transport, social services, primary schools, maintenance of the roads and public areas, water resources, fire services and culture.

On the Slovak side, Štúrovo is a municipality (mesto). In Slovakia, municipalities are legal entities. Their main tasks are public transport, water supply, social assistance, civil status, urbanism, environment, culture and sport, health and primary schools. They may participate at international, cross-border and interior cooperation.

At the regional level, Esztergom belongs to the Komarom-Esztergom County. In Hungary, they are 7 NUTS II regions, 19 counties (megye) and the capital city of Budapest (NUTS III) and 173 subregions (kistérség) (NUTS IV), which are mainly grouping of municipalities. The main tasks of the county are county road network, social assistance, land development, culture, education and regional development.
However, there are also 7 statistical regions regions (régiók). They not only play a policymaking role in development but also other areas of spending. Esztergom belongs to the Central Transdanubian Region.
Since 2004, there are also 166 NUTS IV micro regions (mikro-régiók), comprising groups of municipalities that plan and implement various local activities, mainly with an aim to expand the provision of joint services.

On the Slovak side, Štúrovo belongs to the Nitra Region. Slovakia is subdivided in 8 regions (kraje). The main tasks of the regions are regional network, social assistance, land development, culture, education and regional development.

The contemporary history of cross-border collaboration is relatively recent. The first step of co-operation started with the twinning of the towns of Štúrovo and Esztergom in 1991. The two settlements were already twinned towns in the 11th century when they both belonged to the Hungarian kingdom. Links were strong till the Second World War. The communist era has cut long terms connections. The ending of the cold war and the prospect of entering the European Union has enabled to reconnect both sides of the Danube River. A deepening of the political cross-border network took place as years passed by. In 2000, the two national subregions established a consultative cross-border council which was replaced by the Ister-Granum Euroregion council in 2003. The latest structure had a mayoral parliament and a presidency shared by 14 members of the parliament, the two subregional development agencies supporting the Euroregion in its works.
In terms of concrete actions, the opening of the Maria Valeria Bridge with the financial support of the European Union in 2001 was the most central project contributing to spatial integration. The previous bridge was destroyed during the last world conflict. The reconstruction of it more than 50 years later has enabled cross-border mobility. The end of systematic police control on the bridge due to the entry of Hungary and Slovakia in the Schengen zone in 2007 was also a crucial step in favour of cross-border urban conurbation.


Overall situation
The cities of Esztergom (30 261 inhabitants) and Štúrovo (11 290 inhabitants) are located on the Hungarian-Slovak border, which is marked by the rivers Danube and Ipoly/Ipel. Together, with other towns (Dorog, Nyergesújfalu, Lábatlan...) they form a conurbation (about 90.000 inhabitants) which is the centre of the cross-border Euroregion Ister-Granum, composed by 102 municipalities, of about 218 000 inhabitants. The Hungarian side, more urbanised and inhabited (69% of the population of Euroregion) contrasts with the Slovakian side, with small villages except from two towns (Štúrovo and Želiezovce). Esztergom and Štúrovo (Hungarian: Párkány) were twinned towns in the Hungarian Kingdom from the 11th century and after in the Austria-Hungary Empire. The two towns have belonged to two separate states since 1920 following the peace treaties ending World War I (Štúrovo to Czechoslovakia since 1992 and then to Slovakia; Esztergom to Hungary). Nowadays, Hungarians are the largest ethnic minority of Slovakia (9,7% of the population). They are mostly concentrated in the southern part of the country, like in the Slovakian part of the Euroregion of the population. The rebuilding of the Maria Valeria Bridge in 2001, destroyed during the World War II, is the starting point of the recent integration of the two towns in a cross-border area. Since this date, the number of cross-border flows deeply increased in both ways, especially concerning the workers. Today, about 2500 persons of Štúrovo cross the border everyday to work in Esztergom (mainly in the Suzuki factory). The economic situation is pretty good and the two parts of the Euroregion are complementary. The Hungarian side of the border, more industrialised and urbanised, concentrates job places and has a light unemployment rate (less than 5% in 2008). With 6000 employees (2300 Slovaks), Magyar Suzuki is the first employer of the euroregion (besides, the Japanese company has organized its own bus network to for the employees devoid of personal vehicles). The Slovak side is a more rural area, with small villages and a higher unemployment rate (10%) but decreasing since 2001. However, the railway station of Štúrovo, which was the second biggest in Slovakia for freight transport in 1988 should benefit of its situation for the use of the local plants, among them Suzuki. Political organisation on both sides of the border At the local level, Esztergom is a municipality. In Hungary, Municipalities are the basic units of the system and are organized by settlements, which in Hungary include villages, cities and cities with county rights (Esztergom doesn’t have this right). The municipalities benefit today from a considerable degree of autonomy. Municipal governments are no longer subordinated to county governments; notably, a county cannot overrule the decisions of a municipality. Main tasks of the municipalities are local development, urban planning, protection of the environment, housing, public transport, social services, primary schools, maintenance of the roads and public areas, water resources, fire services and culture. On the Slovak side, Štúrovo is a municipality (mesto). In Slovakia, municipalities are legal entities. Their main tasks are public transport, water supply, social assistance, civil status, urbanism, environment, culture and sport, health and primary schools. They may participate at international, cross-border and interior cooperation. At the regional level, Esztergom belongs to the Komarom-Esztergom County. In Hungary, they are 7 NUTS II regions, 19 counties (megye) and the capital city of Budapest (NUTS III) and 173 subregions (kistérség) (NUTS IV), which are mainly grouping of municipalities. The main tasks of the county are county road network, social assistance, land development, culture, education and regional development. However, there are also 7 statistical regions regions (régiók). They not only play a policymaking role in development but also other areas of spending. Esztergom belongs to the Central Transdanubian Region. Since 2004, there are also 166 NUTS IV micro regions (mikro-régiók), comprising groups of municipalities that plan and implement various local activities, mainly with an aim to expand the provision of joint services. On the Slovak side, Štúrovo belongs to the Nitra Region. Slovakia is subdivided in 8 regions (kraje). The main tasks of the regions are regional network, social assistance, land development, culture, education and regional development. History of the cross-border co-operation in the area The contemporary history of cross-border collaboration is relatively recent. The first step of co-operation started with the twinning of the towns of Štúrovo and Esztergom in 1991. The two settlements were already twinned towns in the 11th century when they both belonged to the Hungarian kingdom. Links were strong till the Second World War. The communist era has cut long terms connections. The ending of the cold war and the prospect of entering the European Union has enabled to reconnect both sides of the Danube River. A deepening of the political cross-border network took place as years passed by. In 2000, the two national subregions established a consultative cross-border council which was replaced by the Ister-Granum Euroregion council in 2003. The latest structure had a mayoral parliament and a presidency shared by 14 members of the parliament, the two subregional development agencies supporting the Euroregion in its works. In terms of concrete actions, the opening of the Maria Valeria Bridge with the financial support of the European Union in 2001 was the most central project contributing to spatial integration. The previous bridge was destroyed during the last world conflict. The reconstruction of it more than 50 years later has enabled cross-border mobility. The end of systematic police control on the bridge due to the entry of Hungary and Slovakia in the Schengen zone in 2007 was also a crucial step in favour of cross-border urban conurbation.
Cross-border territorial cohesion policies
Current cross-border governance in the Ister-Granum Euroregion The Ister-Granum Region has decided recently to intensify cross-border governance to secure an efficient integration of the conurbation. The local politicians signed the convention officialising the entry of their municipalities into an EGTC in May 2008. It is the first initiative taken in Eastern Europe concerning the new governance tool proposed by the European Institutions. The EGTC has been registered by the Slovak government and the Hungarian authorities will normally recognize the official existence of the structure in the near future. A short description of the organisation The statutes of Ister-Granum EGTC show that the executive power is exclusively shared by the local municipalities of the Euroregion. Subregional authorities and national governments are not members of it. The decision-making process in the EGTC is under the responsibility of 3 instruments: - The General Assembly is responsible for the statutes of the EGTC, the budget of the structure, the integration and exclusion of members, the choice of the EGTC director, the choice of an auditor and the election of the Senate’s members. The assembly meets at least twice a year. - The Senate is the managing body of the General Assembly and consequently it represents the assembly between meetings. The head of the Senate is the chairman of the General Assembly. The Senate has 8 members chosen among the members of the assembly, an equal number coming from both sides of the border. The Senate prepares the decision of the assembly and it implements them. It is also an instrument making proposals and delivering opinions concerning cross-border projects, especially the ones prepared by the Committees. - The permanent professional committees are expertise networks helping the EGTC in the definition/implementation of its working programme. They are connected with external organisations and they can organise conferences/work-shops on specific issues. 6 different committees have been established: External relations – Human Resources Policy – Economic and Assets Management – Environmental protection – Industry and Transport – Culture and Tourism. The Region of Ister-Granum has created a tool enabling to officialise connections between its executive instruments and external organisations, that is to say, The Regional Advisory Council which is a consultative body. That instrument is used also to connect with the civil society. Its members are the following ones: the chairmen of the 6 professional committees, 3 representatives of the Ister-Granum Regional Civil Parliament, the representatives of the chambers of commerce and industry (3 persons representing the counties Komaron-Esztergom, Pest and Nitra) and 3 representatives of the largest employers of the Region, that is to say a total of 15 people. The group supports the work of the professional committees and expresses external organisations’ interests (employers – employees – professional organisations). The technical management of the EGTC is put under the responsibility of a Director employed by the structure. Still, as the Hungarian authorities haven’t approved yet the statutes of the EGTC, the actual director is not yet employed by the EGTC. Finally, the 2 subregional development agencies covering both sides of the Euroregion also support actively the actions plan of the conurbation. It is also important to say that the Hungarian language is used locally as the lingua franca of the cross-border co-operation at the political and technical levels because of the importance of the native Hungarian-speaking communities on both sides of the border. Non-Hungarian speakers are few on the Slovak side of the Euroregion and the Slovak-speaking minority living in the Hungarian region of Esztergom is bilingual. The use of Slovak is mainly necessary to connect with external Slovak organisations located at the regional and national scales. An equal use of both languages is above all limited to written communication, especially when official documents are produced. An overview of finance In terms of finance, the EGTC works hasn’t implied yet any official cost. A solidarity fund is expected to finance the management of the structure and its working programme. The management cost of the two subregional development agencies involved in the Euroregion has been paid by local municipalities. European funding have been asked only to support cross-border projects. Cross-border communication The EGTC hasn’t developed yet a global communication strategy. Communication in the Euroregion has been more project-related through cross-border events and actions mentioned by the local press and the radio stations. The use of Hungarian in the spoken communication is more frequent because of the cultural characteristics of the area. Slovak is used such as Hungarian for the written communication. English translations are available for documents considered important in a wider European framework. Existing programme in favour of territorial cohesion Projects Since 2003, a series of projects has been carried out by different organisations located in the Euroregion. The most significant actions have consisted in: - Connecting civil society located on the both sides of the Danube River - Defining thematic strategies enabling a future cross-border territorial cohesion - Implementing some specific short/medium terms projects These actions have been related mainly to the following themes: economics/tourism, environment, logistics/transportation and the third sector/civil society (NGOs). - Economics/tourism: a web portal has been developed for the 20.000 businesses located into the Euroregion with a view to give them useful information for their daily life (e.g.: information concerning the registration requirements). Tourism is highlighted on the portal. In parallel to that project, thematic bicycle routes have been created and common touristic maps on the cross-border territory have been published. - Environment: A fish ladder on the River Ipoly has been built up to enable fish migration and to reduce the environmental damage caused by the regulation of the River Ipoly dating from the mid-1980’s. - Logistics/transportation: a feasibility study has been carried out concerning the development of a cross-border business-related logistics belt leading to 10 different potential projects. Some plans have also been drawn concerning 2 future bridges crossing the Ipoly River and a renewed road network around that infrastructure. - Third sector/civil society: the strengthening of the regional civil sphere has been considered as a major theme of co-operation; a guide on the NGO’s working in the Euroregion has been published in Slovak, Hungarian and English. A bilingual newsletter is also published. Furthermore, a web portal for the NGOs located into the area has been created to initiate interactions between these organisations. Finally, a cross-border study has been carried out to know about the networks created by the NGOs in the Euroregion. The global framework The Euroregion has decided to build up a global policy for the Ister-Granum area. A cross-border strategic development plan was approved by the local authorities in 2005 for the 2007-2013 period, that is to say for the following European Structure Funds generation. The strategy has been achieved with the support of the two regional development agencies located on both sides of the Danube. 8 cross-border committees regrouping a total of 150 experts have also been associated to the definition of the strategy. The objective of the strategy is to intensify the cross-border territorial cohesion in all possible ways. All spatial topics are considered as potential themes of co-operation. The creation of the EGTC, 3 years after the approval of the development plan can be understood as a required evolution of governance in the area. The previous mayoral parliament and its presidency shared by 14 people has played a major role in the setting up of the Euroregion consciousness but the implementation of a development plan has needed a more integrated structure of co-operation. Still, the first EGTC of Eastern Europe is a newly born cross-border public arena. Governance methods within the EGTC must be experienced to achieve concrete results in the coming years. Added value of the «EGTC» URBACT Project A general overview of the Local Action Plan and the URBACT Local Support Group Facilitating the juridical and financial establishment of the Ister-Granum EGTC and its institutions. Sharing the information about the EGTC regulation and its benefits with the national and regional authorities (communication). Elaborating innovative approaches concerning the common governance and its potential instruments (common cross-border strategy). Networking with different cross-border conurbations in Europe.
Conclusion
The end of communism and the entry of Slovakia and Hungary into a liberal European market have permitted a rebirth of a cross-border conurbation linking Esztergom, Štúrovo and their surroundings. The daily migration of Slovak workers to the Hungarian factories is the most evident proof of that integration. The introduction of the euro in Slovakia at the beginning of 2009 could incite Slovak workers to move back in their country to be paid in a stronger currency. That individual strategy which would also interest some Hungarian workers could destabilise some businesses located on the Hungarian side of the Euroregion, another proof that the destiny of both sides of the Danube is interlinked. The most recent objectives of the Euroregion are ambitious. In terms of mobility and energy, a cross-border sustainable transportation policy is wanted to secure the exportation of goods and to contemplate new logistics activities along the Danube. A new approach of hospital services is also required. The Euroregion would like to be considered as a single catchment area to allow people living on the Slovak side of the territory to go to the hospital of Esztergom instead of going to the nearest Slovak hospital situated 50 km away from the border. The building-up of a common touristic image is also considered to be a central issue to merge the assets of both sides of the border (thermal activities, heritage, eco-tourism...). Finally, an integrated media strategy helping to connect inhabitants living in the Euroregion is another expected theme of territorial cohesion. The implementation of these expected policies requires innovative systems of co-operation. The EGTC of Ister-Granum is the political framework of the coming governance. Still, the content of that governance needs to be defined in details. Some major ideas of that strategy have been set up: the building-up of cross-border services such as an Ister-Granum Tourism Agency and a news agency creating bilingual programmes ; a stronger connection between the Euroregion and governmental bodies to secure the funding of the EGTC’s projects with national instruments existing in the various ministries; a network of cross-border territories all along the Slovak-Hungarian frontier to express common recommendations influencing more efficiently decision-makers at the national level. The change of national legislations due to the local needs in border areas is a long and an uncertain process. However a cross-border area having an EGTC could be seen as a spatial laboratory of legislative experimentation. The new governance system expected in the Ister-Granum Euroregion should lead to a certain level of legislative flexibility to test formulas benefiting to both sides of the border. The URBACT EGTC project will help the Ister-Granum area to get experiences from the other European territories facing the same issues and the dynamics powered in the first EGTC of Eastern Europe will also be a source of ideas for the other territorial partners. Other documents: - Website : www.istergranum.hu Photos:

Esztergom - Štúrovo

Overall situation Cross-border territorial cohesion policies Conclusion


Conurbations