RESEARCH ON THE FORCED MIGRATION FROM THE CROSS-BORDER COOPERATION PERSPECTIVE

Abstract

The war on the borders of Romania and the European Union has not only caused forced population movements but also economic imbalances at the European and global levels, as well as significant societal changes. Last but not least, at the level of European institutions, the direction of funding has been altered to assist the Ukrainian people, the success of military defence operations and the reconstruction of affected areas. Also, the financing programs aimed to foster economic, social and cultural ties between the cross-border regions on both sides of the border were affected.

This is particularly concerning since most of these projects included activities aimed at target groups and the population in cross-border regions, including Ukrainians. The purpose of this paper is to analyse, based on a survey addressed to the project teams involved in the Romania-Ukraine 2014-2020 program, how the refugee crisis from Ukraine has impacted the implementation of cross-border projects, especially the activities involving target groups and also the solutions that have been found to achieve the proposed project indicators. The research results have shown that many of the projects encountered difficulties in organizing activities for the target groups due to the refugee crisis, and some were suspended or irrevocably delayed. Moreover, entire project teams found themselves as refugees, receiving support from their colleagues in Romania