Mezei István: Urban development in Slovakia (Pécs-Somorja, 2010)
6. Towns along the Hungarian and Slovak border
Towns along the Hungarian and Slovak border nia). Their ambition was to encourage the economic and cultural cooperation of the approximately 400,000 inhabitants of the 216 settlements in the valleys of the rivers. The work organization of the grouping, which is comprised of three people, is based in the mayor’s office of Túristvándi in Hungary. As a predecessor of the organization, the Association of Borderland Municipalities of Bereg District was established with 15 members in 2000 (Kárpátinfo 2007). 6. 4 Types of cooperation 6. 4. 1 Project-based cooperation Since the border was opened, representative twin-town relations have been supplemented with some - rather symbolic - investments. Roads and paths along the border were cleaned and restored, very often in friendly cooperation. Popular representation is also present in this kind of cooperation, because in all such cases there was at least one local representative, but sometimes also a mayor, who organized the joint work. It was due to the organizational and leadership skills of these people that they had become representatives or mayors, and, by doing such kind of work, they proved worthy of the community’s confidence. On the other hand, an important aspect of such cooperation was volunteering, since neither the budget nor the competences of local governments cover the repairs or construction of roads between settlements. Therefore, owners and managers of factories, stone-pits, sand and gravel pits and cement factories in the environs as well as the parties concerned and the people living there (Hídvégardó in Hungary - Hosťovce, Turnianska Nová Ves in Slovakia) took part in such road construction. The notice on the walls of the local pub ensured publicity. In case of Ózd- Susa, clearing up ownership was made easier by the fact that it was the grandfather of the party interested in the property who had organized the census regarding the reannexation of the village after 1918 (Ózd-Susa in Hungary - Rimavská Seč in Slovakia). Opposite national feeling is also capable of action along the opened border. The mayor of Slovenské Nové Mesto, formerly a part of Sátoraljaújhely but now belonging to Slovakia, even defying the standpoint of the European Union, is not willing to have the concrete flower boxes removed from the road. In this way traffic between the communities is prevented. 166
