ABER Association of European Border Regions Name/NGO

What is ABER – Association of European Border Regions? The Association of European Border Regions (AEBR) is the oldest independent association of regions in Europe, founded in 1971 in Bonn, Germany, and the only one dealing with Cross-Border Cooperation (CBC) With one hundred members (European border and cross-border regions), the AEBR is a forum for cross-border cooperation and makes the voice of the border and cross-border regions heard at European level. The organs of AEBR are: - General Assembly - Executive Committee - Secretary General * The General Assembly is the highest-ranking body. It elects the President and the members of the Executive Committee.

Map of Memebers

The AEBR works on behalf of the European border and cross-border regions with the aim to: highlight their special problems, opportunities, responsibilities and activities; represent their common interests vis-à-vis national and international parliaments, bodies, authorities and institutions; initiate, support and coordinate cooperation between the regions throughout Europe; promote exchanges of experience and information with a view to identifying and coordinating common interests among the diverse range of cross-border problems and opportunities, and to propose possible solutions.

The activities of AEBR involve: implementing programmes and projects, to apply for funds and to receive and to dispose of them; to organise events that deal with cross-border problems; to help to solve cross-border problems and to support special activities; to prepare and implement common campaigns within the networks; to inform European political bodies and the public about cross-border issues.

ABER Task Forces: “Cross-Border Health” Activities: A series of conferences on the topic “European Co-operation in the Health Sector” “External Borders” Involved are representatives of member regions at the external borders of the EU. The Task Force is divided in 3 sub groups: North, Central Europe and South Europe & Balkan. Task Force "INTERREG A" This Task Force deals with the study of Interreg IV A in different European border areas, collects examples and practices, compares them, and produces some recommendations for the EU.

Task Force "Cross-Border Culture" The aim of the T4CBC is to generate a new dimension for the European cultural networks that goes beyond the usual meetings and conferences and integrates the realization of concrete European projects.  The T4CBC wants to promote cross-border cultural cooperation within and between the border regions of Europe by enhancing the collaboration between creative people (artists, designers, architects, ...) and the cultural actors (representatives of cultural organizations, administrations and networks) in specific cross-border and trans-European projects. Task Force "Water Management" AEBR Information Center in Kharkiv The initiators of creating the AEBR Information Center in KhNU of Economics, taking into account the international development practice of information cooperation, originated the creation of the information project: “E-Digest “Information Center of the Association of European Border Regions in Kharkiv National University of Economics”

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