Border Regions and Infrastructure Networks in the European Integration Process

This paper focuses attention' on development strategies of peripheral areas. In particular, it addresses the issue of integration effects for (internal) border regions after the completion of the internal European market. After a review of recent EC policies, it is claimed that there is an urgent need for designing and evaluating active development strategies for former internal border areas. A case study on two Dutch (peripheral) border provinces is described with a particular view on exploiting the indigenous development potential of such areas as a strategie vehicle for international competitiveness. A multiple criteria analysis is used to identify the most plausible and desirable development scenarios for these regions. 1. Regional Development and Border Areas: A Changing Scène The international economie scène has manifested drastic changes in the recent past. Economie integration or at least a break-down of former trade barriers instigated by political, cultural or socio-economic motives is likely to become one of the most prominent stimuli for shifts in international trade flows, labour migration and knowledge transfer. The completion of the internal market in the European Community (EC), the converging East-West developments on the European continent and the economie integration or at least cooperation efforts in North-America (NAFTA) or South-East Asia (ASEAN) offer all the same picture for the 1990s, viz. an unprecedented elimination of unnecessary economie barriers between nations (cf. Fukuyama 1992, Pinder 1991, Robson 1987, Yannopoulos 1989). At a global scale we witness the emergence of large scale trade blocks with world-wide impacts in terms of political power, economie concentration, technological dominance or strategie knowledge. Former fierce economie competition between nations and sectors seems to have shifted towards a global level of supra-national powers, while regional and national economies have become part of an (internally open) international economie network system (Porter 1989, Quévit 1991). Especially the European countries are increasingly showing clear signs of a development towards an integrated (or at least open) network economy. in which trade barriers are increasingly removed and spatial interactions (goods, people, information) are increasing (Bonnafous 1989, Simons and Wansink 1990, Vickerman 1991, 1992, Violland 1988). This development is fuelled by the recognition that a full exploitation of a nations's (or a region's) competitive advantage in an open international economie system is a critical key force for maximising economie growth, an idea strongly advocated in the White Paper of the European Commission in 1987. Favouring free international trade pre-supposes also the existence of an accessible and cohesive network infrastructure that would induce further development and integration of the European economy. Thus a necessary consequence of European integration policies is a strict emphasis on sophisticated network infrastructures related to all relevant modes. The drastic increase in the budget of the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the plans to create a European Infrastructure Fund demonstrate the awareness of infrastructure as a critical success factor for the restructuring of the European economies (see also Camagni 1992). In this context it is noteworthy that Andersson and Strömquist (1989) claimed that each new stage in the history of Europe was accompanied by a socalled logistic or infrastructure revolution. They distinguish four such revolutions: (i) the end of the Middle Ages when new banking and trade systems emerged together with the development of new transport systems (e.g., the Hanseatic League); (ii) the Golden Age when new navigation techniques and trade agreements allowed a rapid expansion of the European economy; (iii) the Industrial Revolution when new industrial mechanics had a decisive impact on transport systems (railways, steamships, cars); (iv) the Informaties revolution