Miskolc Workshop (Report)

The third stakeholder workshop within the Legal Accessibility project was held in Miskolc at the Mayor’s Offices (2 Hunyadi J. street), to which stakeholders active in cross-border cooperation in the Slovak-Hungarian border region were invited. In the form of a round table discussion, two associates of CESCI were collecting information on the legal obstacles, deficiencies and best practices experienced by local actors.

The meeting was held on the 4th of February 2016 and was attended by 7 participants in the following sectors and fields::

  • water management: North Hungarian Water Conservancy Directorate;
  • local government sector: City of Miskolc, Municipality of Gulács, Municipality of Hernádpetri;
  • European grouping for territorial cooperation: Via Carpatia European Grouping for Territorial Cooperation.

Miskolci műhely

Some of the problems were raised in the field of health care. Despite EU directive no. 2011/24/EU, legislative shortcomings are hindering the free flow of patients (except emergency medicine). Apart from this, the cross-border integration of information systems used during medical treatment is facing several obstacles of not only legal nature (e.g. data protection).
Besides health care, local production and the creation of short supply chains were another important topic. On the one hand, concerning animal husbandry, compliance regarding keeping livestock within the borders is causing problems. On the other hand, the acquisition of local products by local governmental institutions (e.g. kindergartens, schools, etc.) has been raised as a public procurement issue.
Cross-border education and employment is fundamentally hindered by the lack of cross-border public transport, development of which is partially cast back by legal/legislative obstacles. Additionally, the legal environment of cross-border employment is not clear either.

As a good practice, the long-term strategic partnership of water conservancy organisations was mentioned, not only concerning daily operation, but also in the case of human-inflicted disasters.