COMMON DEVELOPMENT OF COMMUNAL INFRASTRUCTURE

The Euroregion's geographical position enables active intercommunal co-operation in the areas of environmental protection and development of technical infrastructure. This covers mainly smaller distances by establishing and linking common engineering networks together according to the needs of the municipalities.

The advantages are enhanced by the fact, that significant inequalities exist on both sides of the border concerning the quality, quantity and costs of investments. This way a mutually lucrative co-operation could be created that would increase the level of services and enable a better utilisation of capacities by lower costs. Establishment of relations between the municipalities on both sides of the border, specification of demands and of means of co-operation are fundamental conditions for co-operation. It is important already in this phase of our effort to synchronise intentions with the particular suppliers (waterworks, sewerage system, supplier of electricity) and with the authorities performing supervision. This would be followed by the analysis of investment costs and running costs, then by the elaboration of a study concerning feasibility. If the investment will appear to be possible and advantageous, common investment resources could be gained from EU programs (PHARE CBC f. e.). Common development of tourist trade and creation of a system of services is also a great challenge for the municipalities on the Euroregion's territory. In order to ensure qualitative prerequisites it is necessary to prepare development plans and plans concerning environmental protection. Simultaneously to the intensification of tourist trade it is important to adequately ensure also the common protection of nature, construction of sewerage systems, water-supply and sewage tanks according to the requirements of the European Union. Treatment and recycling of waste will become an important part of cross-border co-operation, too, along with the creation of alternative sources of energy (water power plants, biomasses, utilisation of wooden waste etc.). The mentioned means of co-operation will become a necessity with the passage of time, therefore it is necessary to start planning common activities already at the present time. Postponing the collaboration of self-governments in the area of cross-border co-operation could have serious consequences for the next generations. Their impact would appear in only a few years, in the horizon of this strategic plan, until the year 2012. These threats emerge from the Euroregion's weak sides. One of them is, that a large number of municipalities mainly in the Slovak part of the Euroregion doesn't even have its own water-supply. The status of sewerage systems and sewage plants is unsatisfying and in this aspect the whole Slovakian and Hungarian territory is undersized and insufficiently outfitted compared to other regions of Slovakia or Hungary. The inefficient management of waste treatment, ecological burdens from the former industrial production and the lack of discipline among the inhabitants in terms of creating small, but numerous illegal waste dumps threaten the environment. All these negative phenomena deteriorate soil, ground water and nature even in rural areas already at the present. Statistics, but also existing negative effects give sufficient reason for co-operation even in this area, because these effects don't know state borders. Consequences are not only of ecological nature, they also strongly influence the economy and the sustainable development of the economy. Municipalities and other organisations spend a great amount of resources already at the present in order to eliminate the results of human interference with nature (illegal felling of trees, liquidation of illegal waste dumps, increasing amount of waste and so on). Prevention in this area doesn't have a high priority so far. Therefore preventive protection of the environment with the help of municipalities and inhabitants is a main priority of the Euroregion. The initiation of an effective and practical co-operation in the mentioned field can bring positive changes to life. Management of cross-border protection of environment, waste water purification and common waste treatment decrease the ecological burden of the area, improve the quality of surface and ground waters. This way the municipalities become cleaner and healthier. The established infrastructure and the protected natural surrounding becomes more attractive in terms of investment support, tourism development and concerning the development of internal tourism of the Neogradiensis Euroregion's inhabitants. Cross-border professional and personal relationships will widen, the relation of the inhabitants towards nature will change, and these major factors could trigger further co-operation.