Cross-border cooperation

Cross-border cooperation is neighborly cooperation in all areas of life between neighboring areas, regional and local authorities , authorities or institutions in border areas.

A border area consists of an area with its residents and the network of relationships that exists between them, but is disturbed by a state border or where the border prevents or at least impedes the establishment of networks of relationships from the outset.

Economic and cultural cooperation

Through the boundary layer, for example, are small and medium enterprises limited in economic activity on both sides of the border, workers have difficulties in their social and taxation of employment on the other side of the border, the public transport is often not coordinated and the administrations on both sides at the border are often little or not at all networked, so that deficits arise, for example, in disaster control or in the fight against crime.

A fundamental principle of cross-border cooperation is to create links and contractual relationships in border regions so that common solutions can be found to problems affecting the entire border region. The INTERREG community initiative is a particular instrument of European structural policy .

The cross-border cooperation on the Upper Rhine, High Rhine and Lake Constance is considered exemplary .

Police cooperation

According to Article 39 (4) of the Schengen Implementation Convention (SDÜ), police cooperation in border areas can be regulated in agreements between the responsible ministers of the contracting parties. This must be distinguished from police cooperation between all competent authorities in the member states based on European legislation in order to create an EU-wide area of freedom, security and justice .

Cross-border police cooperation allows officers of one contracting party to intervene on the territory of another contracting party, for example by pursuing or observing across the respective national border.

Bilateral

Bilateral police and customs agreements exist with:

Denmark
- Legal basis: Agreement between the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Government of the Kingdom of Denmark on police cooperation in the border areas of March 21, 2001, in force since August 11, 2002.
- Authority: Joint center of the German-Danish police and customs cooperation Padborg (German Pattburg)
- Headquarters: Padborg (Denmark)
- Territorial scope: German-Danish border area
- Involved:
  - German authorities: Federal Border Police North, police and water protection police departments in Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and Schleswig-Holstein
  - Foreign authorities: Reich Police Chief , various police departments , customs and tax authorities

Poland
- Legal basis: Agreement between the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Government of the Republic of Poland on cooperation between police, border and customs authorities of May 15, 2014, in force since July 9, 2015.
- Authority: Joint center for German-Polish police and customs cooperation Swiecko
- Office: Świecko (Poland)
- Territorial scope: the territories of the local jurisdiction of the border authorities in the Republic of Poland; in the Federal Republic of Germany the states of Berlin, Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania and the Free State of Saxony
- Involved:
  - German authorities: central authorities and border agencies such as the Federal police headquarters , state police Brandenburg , state police Brandenburg , state police Mecklenburg-Vorpommern , Landeskriminalamt Saxony , Hauptzoll- and customs investigation offices
  - Foreign authorities: central authorities and police, border protection and customs authorities

Czech Republic

Legal basis: Treaty of April 28, 2015 between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Czech Republic on police cooperation and amending the treaty of February 2, 2000 between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Czech Republic on the addition of the European Convention on Mutual Assistance in Criminal Matters of April 20, 1959 and the facilitation of its application, in force since October 1, 2016.

Authority: Joint center for German-Czech police and customs cooperation Petrovice-Schwandorf

Office: Schwandorf (Germany)

Spatial scope: border areas, d. H. the local area of responsibility of the German and Czech authorities responsible for cooperation

Schwandorf office
Involved:

German authorities: Federal Police Headquarters , Bavarian Police , Cologne Customs Criminal Police Office

Foreign authorities: Police Czech Republic , Police Administration West Bohemia, Customs Administration of the Czech Republic (Customs Office of the Pilsen District)

Petrovice based in Bahratal (Germany)
Involved:

German authorities: Federal Police Headquarters , State Criminal Police Office Saxony , Customs Criminal Police Office Cologne

Foreign authorities: Police of the Czech Republic, Regional Directorate of Aliens Police Ústí nad Labem, Customs of the Czech Republic

Austria
- Legal basis: Treaty of November 10 and December 19, 2003 between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Republic of Austria on cross-border cooperation for police security and criminal matters, in force since December 1, 2005.
- Authority: Joint Center Passau
- Office: Passau
  - Spatial scope: the administrative districts of Freiburg, Stuttgart, Tübingen, Swabia, Upper and Lower Bavaria as well as the security departments for the federal states of Vorarlberg, Tyrol, Salzburg and Upper Austria
  - Involved:
    - German authorities: Federal and state law enforcement authorities as well as the public prosecutor's offices and courts
    - Foreign authorities: police and judicial authorities

France

Legal basis: Agreement of October 9, 1997 between the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Government of the French Republic on cooperation between the police and customs authorities (so-called Mondorf Agreement), in force since April 1, 2000.

Authority: Joint center for Franco-German police and customs cooperation

Office: Kehl (Germany)

Spatial scope: Freiburg and Karlsruhe administrative districts, police districts of the police headquarters in Rhineland Palatinate and West Palatinate, Saarland and the border departments of Upper Rhine (Haut-Rhin), Lower Rhine (Bas-Rhin) and Moselle (Moselle)

Involved:

German authorities: Federal Police Headquarters , State Criminal Police Office BaWü , Customs Criminal Police Office Cologne

Foreign authorities: Police Nationale, Gendarmerie Nationale, Douane

Belgium
- Legal basis: Agreement of March 27, 2000 between the Government of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium on cooperation between the police and customs administrations in border areas, in force since October 23, 2002.
- Spatial scope: Trier police district, city of Aachen, districts of Aachen, Düren, Euskirchen and Heinsberg as well as the judicial districts of Eupen, Verviers, Liège and Tongeren
- Liaison offices involved:
  - German authorities: Police headquarters in Trier and Aachen, Federal Border Police in Kleve, Cologne and Saarbrücken
  - Foreign authorities: Eupen Gendarmerie District

Luxembourg
- Legal basis: Agreement between the Federal Minister of the Interior of the Federal Republic of Germany and the Minister of Justice and Minister of Public Power of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg on police cooperation in the border area between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg of October 24, 1995, in force since June 1, 1996 . Agreement between the Governments of the Federal Republic of Germany, the Government of the Kingdom of Belgium, the Government of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg and the Government of the French Republic on the establishment and operation of a joint police and customs cooperation center in the common border area of October 24, 2008.
- Authority: Joint center for cross-border police and customs cooperation in Luxembourg
- Office: Luxembourg (city)
- Territorial scope of application: Trier police district, Saarland, Grand Duchy of Luxembourg
- Participating contact points:
  - German authorities: Trier Police Headquarters, West Police Directorate in Saarlouis
  - Foreign authorities: Gendarmerie Command and Police Directorate in Luxembourg, Douane Luxembourg, Police Fédérale Belgium, Douane Belgium, Gendarmerie Nationale France, Police Nationale France, Douane France

Netherlands
- Legal basis: Treaty between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Kingdom of the Netherlands on cross-border police cooperation and cooperation in criminal matters of March 2, 2005, in force since September 1, 2006.
- Authority: Joint Liaison Point Netherlands (Joint Border Coordination Center)
- Office: No joint center, but the Euregional Police Information and Cooperation Center (EPICC) of the Euregio Meuse-Rhine based in Kerkrade (formerly Heerlen) exists as a similar facility
- Involved:
  - German authorities: Federal and state law enforcement authorities as well as the public prosecutor's offices and courts
  - Foreign authorities: police , public prosecutor's offices and ministries involved in the implementation of the contract
Dinxperlo : First German-Dutch police station
Switzerland
- Legal basis: Treaty between the Swiss Confederation and the Federal Republic of Germany on cross-border police and judicial cooperation of April 27, 1999, in force since March 1, 2002. With effect from March 29, 2009, Switzerland joined the Schengen area .
- Authority: direct cooperation between the police services involved
- Spatial scope: Freiburg, Tübingen, Stuttgart, Swabia, Upper Bavaria and Middle Franconia as well as the cantons of Basel-Stadt, Basel-Land, Aargau, Schaffhausen, Zurich, Thurgau and St. Gallen
- Participating national central offices:
  - German authorities: Federal Criminal Police Office
  - Foreign authorities: Federal Police Office , Federal Police

Multilateral

Belgium, Germany, Spain, France, the Netherlands, Luxembourg and Austria have deepened cross-border cooperation in the multilateral Prüm Treaty , in particular to combat terrorism, cross-border crime and illegal migration. The aim of the treaty is in particular to improve the exchange of information between the signatory states for the purpose of preventing and prosecuting criminal offenses.

literature

Hansjörg Drewello: Evaluation methodology for cross-border cooperation. Haupt, Bern 2002. ISBN 3-258-06399-0
Charles Ricq: Handbook of transfrontier co-operation. Council of Europe, 2006
Gabriel Richard-Molard: The legal basis of the cross-border cooperation law between regional authorities. Lit. Verlag, 2017. ISBN 978-3-643-90849-0
Wille, Christian / Connor, Ulla (2019): Cross-border cooperation as practice formation. Perspectives for an alternative research approach . In: Beck, Joachim (ed.): Transdisciplinary discourses on cross-border cooperation in Europe . Bruxelles, Peter Lang, pp. 255-278

Web links

Karina Pallagst, H. Peter Dörrenbächer, Thomas Weith: Theoretical cross-border cooperation: explanatory approaches from European integration, regionalism and governance ARL work reports , 2018

Gregory Dufour: Europe in miniature: Cross-border cooperation using the example of Lorraine bpb , December 19, 2012

Lower Austrian Health and Social Fund: Lower Austria's cross-border activities in cooperation in the health system within the framework of the EU funding period 2007–2013 without a year

Cross-border cooperation Federal Department of Foreign Affairs , July 1, 2018

Individual evidence

↑ Jakob Landwehr: The term "cross-border cooperation" and its application using the example of cooperation between the region of Southwest Finland and the state of Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania , in: Matthias Niedobitek, Andreas Löwe (ed.): Cross-border cooperation in Europe, University Press Chemnitz, 2013, p 12 f.

↑ OJ. No. L 239 of September 22, 2000 .