"On this side of the Border and beyond the Borders - integration and migration in the Carpathian Basin" project

Carpathian Foundation implemented a project called „On this side of the Border and beyond the Borders - integration and migration in the Carpathian Basin” between 1st September 2008 and 30th April 2009, in co-operation with the Europe Direct Information Point of the Local Government of Heves County and the Hungarian Investment and Trade Development Agency, supported by the Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affaires in the amount of 5 million HUF total grant.

The main aim of the project is the elaboration of a joint strategy with the cooperation of representatives of the three sectors (NGO, LSG, and business) including twin-town relations of Heves County in order to create common answers to the challenges and problems of the migration and the extension of Schengen zone.

 
Two conferences were organized on 15 – 17th October 2008, in Noszvaj and on 25th February 2009 in Eger with 55 participants. The participants were representatives of ministries, development agencies, enterprises, local self-governments and civil organizations from Hungary, Slovakia, Romania and Ukraine. The most prominent speakers of the conference in Eger were the Ambassador of Switzerland, representatives of the Ministry for Foreign Affairs, the Office of Immigration and Nationality, the Parliamentary Commissioners’ Office of Hungary, Hungarian Investment and Trade Development Agency, Chambers of Commerce, universities and civic organizations. The language of the conference was Hungarian and English.
 
A Memorandum was prepared in the framework of the project and accepted and signed on the conference. It contains the experiences and proposals of the three sectors (business, governmental and civil sector).
On 23rd March 2009 the document was forwarded to the competent authorities (e.g. National Ministry of Economics and Development, Hungarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Ministry of Self-governments, Ministry of Education and Culture, Ministry of Social Affairs and Labour). After long preparation, by 30th April the publication related to this project called “On this side of the Border and beyond the Borders - integration and migration in the Carpathian Basin” was printed in 1250 copies in Hungarian.
In December 2009 a brief brochure was prepared and ideas for the continuation were born for the continuation of the program.