HARMONIZATION OF REGIONAL ECONOMIC AND SOCIAL POLICIES WITHIN THE ROMANIAN-HUNGARIAN-UKRAINIAN BORDER AREA
Georgina Szilagyi
DRAFT POLICY PAPER
With the process of EU integration at hand, cross-border co-operation has become a top priority in East-Central Europe. In fact, there is no viable alternative to integrated regional development. Isolation and nationalist self containment would be profoundly counterproductive both economically and politically. From the perspective of advancing European integration process, the existence of the appropriate legislative framework, economic and social policies aimed at ensuring the three movement of persons, labor, material and spiritual goods across the borders is of an utmost importance. This is essential also for securing the human rights of migrants in accordance with international and European Union standards.
Another important argument for the elaboration and implementation of integrated regional cross border development policies is concerning the necessity to overcome the existing gap between the economic levels and life standards in its constitutive micro-regions. The integration of less developed territorial-economical units in the economic activities system of the larger regions can provide them important incentives and stimula for catching up. In the same time, integrated regional economic, social, labor market and migration policies would allow for the implementation of special development strategies designed for the needs of the less developed areas. In this way all territorial micro-units belonging to the region can be supported to find and fulfill the economic functions best suited to them, in accordance with the principle of subsidiarity.
Finally, it would be also necessary to take into account the potential beneficial effects which the implementation of integrated cross border regional policies in the field of regulating international movement of labor can have on the cooperation between the concerned states and nations. Co-operation at micro-level can provide a model for the larger regions and for states, helping to overcome ethno-political divisions and thus strenghtening peace and stability.
From declarations of intention to implementation there are, however, many difficulties to overcome. One major problem in this regard is what one may call the strongly "asymmetrical " character of some border regions. In spite of geographic proximity, common regional culture and memory of the past, ethnic and family ties and shared values, economic development gaps and sometimes even political division lines continue to survive and to largely prevent the use of resources which potentially reside in regional thinking and cooperation.
The trilateral border area of Hungary, Romania and Ukraine is a very good example for the persistence of such obstacles. After the transformations of 1989-91 the three countries found themselves in very different situations and developed very different strategies of adaptation to the new economical, social, political and legal environment. While Hungary rather successfully advanced towards a fully-fledged market economy and European integration, Ukraine and Romania were to a much larger extent affected – although in different degrees – by the disintegration of the communist economic system and the collapse of the Eastern market. These led to a dramatic fall in the life standards and the aggravation of social problems in the two countries concerned.
Previous research on the economic orientation of the inhabitants from the borderland area demonstrates that the adaptation strategies employed by the population are also very divergent. In Hungary, where work opportunities are much larger due to the considerable influx of foreign capital, the positive-constructive ways of adaptation (such as retraining, change of jobs, accepting second employment) are prevailing. By contrast, in the Ukrainian border region – and to less extent also in the areas belonging to Romania - the collapse of industrial enterprises and the resulting huge unemployment forced many people to search for sources of income in Hungary.
While the concerned countries and regions have developed several bilateral cross border cooperation initiatives, these are barely touching the issue of labor migration. In this field the policies of the three countries involved are mainly determined by ad hoc situations and interests.. What is particularly missing is the co-ordination of development projects into a unitary strategy at regional level In the same time a lack of vision persists in applying development projects to the trilateral border area considered as a distinct region.
In the "sender" states (Romania and Ukraine) the governments are working, without major success, to attenuate poverty and to reverse pauperisation process. However, the ad hoc centralist redistributive measures taken in this regard are running against the natural direction of pro market economic reforms and do not offer any solution to the problem of illegal labor migration.
Government policies of the "receiver" country (Hungary) are focusing on crisis management and to restrictive measures to prevent the “invasion” of foreign workforce in order to protect the position in the labor market of Hungarian citizens. This efforts, however, might come in contradiction both with the European Union legislation concerning free movement of labor and with the Hungarian government policy of support for ethnic Hungarians in the neighbor countries.
This situation is hardly surprising, as cross border migration of workforce is one of the most sensitive subjects that act as an obstacle on the way of regional development. Cross-border efforts of cooperation in this field are continuing to be hindered by important gaps in economic development and the life standards in the three countries. Hungary and Romania on the one side and Ukraine on the other, have different status in relation to the European Union. Ukraine does not have access to many facilities and assistance offered by European Union to Romania and Hungary. These act as additional factors, which make difficult the implementation of joint regional cross-border development projects.
The harmonisation of the legal frameworks and the compatibilization of labor market policies in the discussed border area is further made difficult by the existence of different internal political contexts of the three countries and the divergent role of formal and informal interest groups and power structures in shaping policy. In Romania, for instance, the close interplay between the dominant economic and political elite or in Ukraine the strong influence of underground pressure groups are such "informal" factors hindering the effectiveness of the official political efforts aimed at the optimisation of legal and policy environment.
The harmonization of the legal frameworks and labor market policies in the discussed border area is further made difficult by the existence of different internal political contexts of the three countries and the divergent role of formal and informal interest groups and power structures in shaping policy. In Romania, for instance, the close interplay between the dominant economic and political elite or in Ukraine the strong influence of underground pressure groups are such "informal" factors hindering the effectiveness of the official political efforts aimed at the optimization of legal and policy environment.
The dominant political mentality and practice in the region has been based on overemphasizing the virtues of the central government, expecting almost everything from the central state authority. Although in the last decade significant efforts have been made to overcome the centralist tradition inherited from the communist period by offering larger competencies to local and regional self- government, the three countries are advancing in this direction in a very different pace. Romania, and particularly Ukraine are lagging far behind Hungary in this respect. This lack of synchronization is another powerful obstacle on the way of harmonizing labor market and social policies of local authorities at cross border regional level.
The endogenous difficulties encountered on the way of harmonization of legal framework and policies of cross border labor migration are further increased by the fact that there is no available outside model which can be applied. The relevant European Union legislation is also rather new and there was not enough time to test it and improve it in the current political practice.
Apart from this, in the Romanian-Hungarian-Ukrainian border area there are certain regional peculiarities which clearly do not fit with the conditions in the European Union countries on which recent EU labor migration legislation has been built. Such are the huge economic development and income gap, particularly between Hungary and Ukraine; the fact that unlike Hungary and Romania, Ukraine is not a EU candidate state, so it is not required to adopt the EU aquis; the huge rate of poverty together with the compensation strategies aimed at its attenuation. All these factors are seriously restricting the possibility to use European integration process and relevant EU legislation as effective tools for adopting flexible, compatible and mutually acceptable regulations and policy actions in the field of cross border labor migration.
Due to the absence of long term coordinated strategies to deal with the problems raised by the "guest worker" phenomenon, one can speak of a process of spontaneous adaptation by the concerned social actors: employers and employees, authorities and controlling bodies. Due to the inadequacy of the legal systems, the lack of continuity and compatibility between them, a large proportion of these spontaneous adaptation efforts falls outside the law. The response of the power holders is predominantly a passive one, lagging far behind actual social changes and oscillating between toleration and punishment, instead of bold policy initiatives. The existence of parallel economies and labor markets seems to be regarded by most policy makers as a inevitable and within certain limits acceptable compensatory mechanism aimed to make economic crisis and transition socially bearable.
That is why identifying the resources and possibilities of regional cross border cooperation in the field of labor migration has become today a political urgency. In order to prepare the ground for this, there is a need for specifically designed institutional system, regulations and programs. This requires the joint effort of local, regional and national governments. While the most important work has to be done by the political and civil elite of the concerned region, the strong involvement of the central governments in the process is also necessary, the more so as the political and administrative systems at least of Romania and Ukraine still have strong centralist features.
In view of the economic, social and political situation and needs described above, the following general policy aims can be stated which can provide a shared basis for further action and cooperation of the concerned national and regional governments:
-The formulation, application and evaluation of international migration policies suited to the economic and social aims of governments, employers, and workers organizations
- The increase of equality of opportunity, fair treatment of migrants and the protection of their rights and dignity
- Improving the handling of the human and social conflicts involved in labour migration
- Developing an appropriate policy framework
- Enhancing the role of regional cross border cooperation in the process of optimising migrational policies
- Strenghtening the role of labour migration in overcoming economic and social gap between the level of development of areas situated in opposite sides of the border
- Using the human and institutional contacts generated by labour migration to the benefit of cross border cooperation
- Developing economic, social and migrational legal framework and policies in accordance with EU standards
- Contributing to the regional integration of the border areas beyond the nation state division lines
- Optimising the use of regional resources in order to further the economic and social development in the border areas
- Setting up regional models of economic cooperation based on an optimal exchange of values and resources, institutional and human relations
While fulfilling certain compensatory roles in the transition economies and societies of the region, the illegal or semi legal guest work phenomenon also raises many questions to which there are no satisfactory policy answers so far:
I hope that the final analysis and interpretation of our research data will throw more light to all these issues, which are crucial to the development of market economy, democracy and welfare in the region.