Transfrontier Euro-Institut Network (TEIN)

Transfrontier Euro-Institut Network (TEIN)

Border Region
Focus spatial / Räumlicher Fokus European Union, Germany, Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Spain, France, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Czech Republic, Luxembourg
Language(s)
Français
Allemand
Type
Portrait of a network
Main Category
Regional Development – Sustainability
Employment – Education – Economy
Governance – Power – Cooperation
Language – Culture – Identity
Theories – Concepts – Terms
Introduction

The TEIN network is a network of excellence in training and research on cross-border themes.

Summary

The aim of the TEIN network, led by the Euro-Institut in Strasbourg, is to contribute to the process of European integration by training the actors involved in cross-border projects. Its members are different research and training organisations from more than 10 European Union countries. Its activities focus on the sharing of good practices and knowledge of cross-border issues and well as producing and disseminating educational tools for cross-border practitioners.

Content

The TEIN network brings together universities, research institutes and training centres, all of them committed to the practice of cross-border cooperation in Europe. Their activities include assistance with cross-border projects, the training of the actors in cross-border issues and, more generally, research in this field.  They also have localised expertise relating to certain specific European cross-border contexts.

The TEIN network provides cross-border actors with a series of tools to measure the impact of cross-border projects, tools for facilitating meetings in cross-border contexts and tools for training cross-border project managers.  These tools are designed to meet the practical needs of actors involved on the ground and more specifically: to understand the specific features of cross-border projects, to deal with interpersonal obstacles common in cross-border work situations and to implement the projects at each specific border.

The projects conducted by the TEIN network are of several types: analyses of case studies such as the cooperation and diplomacy of micro-states; projects on more general themes such as conflicts or crisis management in cross-border settings and, finally, the development of training resources such as The Critical Dictionary on Borders, Cross-Border Cooperation and European Integration.

Since 2019, the network has been organising annual conferences enabling participants to expand their knowledge and their network of researchers and practitioners. With the Tein4Citizens initiative, they are taking an interest in what the European citizens concerned have to say about cross-border issues.

Conclusions

Cross-border questions potentially concern almost 40% of Europe's regions and are of primary interest to improve European integration. However, this is a field of knowledge that is relatively recent.  A great deal of progress still needs to be made in the production of knowledge and in the training of stakeholders and practitioners. This is the approach taken by the TEIN network's members.

One of the conditions of European integration is that it improves the cohesion of territories. Now, in the complex context of the European Union, there are many cultural, linguistic and legal obstacles to overcome.  The tools developed by the TEIN network are designed to do just that. The cross-border issues are therefore essentially addressed from the angle of the need to move beyond the borders of different types that confront stakeholders and practitioners in the field.

Cooperation within the European Union is a practice that has to deal with very diverse cross-border contexts. Although the obstacles are often of the same nature, they take singular concrete forms each time. The tools developed by the TEIN network are therefore designed to adapt to each particular set of linguistic and cultural constraints specific to the different European borders and to take account of all the types of interlocutors present at political and administrative level.

Key Messages

The linguistic, cultural and legal obstacles encountered by the practitioners involved in cross-borders can be overcome via specific forms of expertise and methodologies that the members of the TEIN network propose to design and teach.

Cooperation within the European Union is a practice that has to deal with very diverse cross-border contexts. Although the obstacles are often of the same nature, they take singular concrete forms each time.

Lead

Euro-Institut

Author of the entry
Sylvain
MARBEHANT
Contributions

School of Management, Carinthia University of Applied Sciences
Faculty of Public Administration, University of Ljubljana
Olza Association
Institu Euroschola
WSB University
Centre for Cross Border Studies
ICRESS (Institut Catalan de recherché en Sciences Sociales), Université de Perpignan Via Doitia
University of Girona
IEC, Institute of Catan Studies
Institute of Borders and Discontinuities
Université Savoie Mont Blanc
Euro-Institut
Institut d’Etudes Politiques, Université de Strasbourg
Viadrina Center B/Orders in Motion, European University Viadrina Frankfurt (Oder)
ITEM (Institute for Transnational and Euroregional cross border cooperation and Mobility, University of Maastricht
MOT (Mission Opérationelle Transfrontaliire)
AEBR / Association or European Border Regions
UniGR-Center for Border Studies

Links

http://transfrontier.eu/

Keywords
Training
Education
cross-border cooperation
Contact Person(s)
Date of creation
2020