The development of Hungarian-Romanian cross-border connections after the change of regime

The purpose of the presentation is to summarily describe the development of cross-border connections along the Hungarian-Romanian borderline from the democratic transformation to hitherto. This is one of the temporary external borders of the European Union and we intend to pay special attention to the development of effective cooperation accomplished in the immediate border region. The Hungarian-Romanian PHARE CBC program had/has a significant role in intensification of connections among people living on both sides of the border (e.g. to organize common educational, cultural, economic etc. programs, expert's meetings, common investments), which extended the funding system of the EU for two non-member states at its startup (in 1996) in a unique way. For this reason the presentation focuses on the effects of those projects which were realized with the financial assistance of the Union and had significant influence on cross-border connections and makes an attempt to highlight the main features of prospective tendencies of cooperation. Beside the summary of the already terminated or proceeding common applications the perceptions of active Hungarian and Romanian participants about the activity of the application system will be mentioned as well. We'll also focus on the results of a survey carried out among people living in the direct border, which summarize the opinions of local inhabitants about the characteristics and intensity of connection and the possibility of continuation of the development process.