Brest implements projects worth €22m in Bug Euroregion

BREST, 27 November (BelTA) – Brest Oblast is implementing 22 projects worth €22 million as part of the Bug Euroregion cross-border association, the head of the Council, Chairman of the Bug Euroregion cross-border association, the chairman of the Brest Oblast Executive Committee Mr Konstantin Sumar said at a meeting of the council on 26 November.

“A euregion is designed to develop cross-border links, promote contacts between neighboring regions in the various fields: culture, education, economy, communications, transportation, the environment, law enforcement and emergency response. Bug Euroregion performs all these tasks,” said Mr Konstantin Sumar.

In recent years, Bug Euroregion has implemented several important projects, including the establishment of the transboundary reserve "Pribuzhskoe Polesie", joint projects for the prevention of environmental disasters, in law enforcement, etc.

Mr Konstantin Sumar singled out the upgrade of the border crossing point “Peschatka” on the Belarusian-Polish border among the most important projects currently udnerway in Brest Oblast: “This border crossing point is important not only for the Poles and Belarusians. It is a starting point of the new motor road bypassing around the National Park “Belovezhskaya Pushcha” -a promising thoroughfare on the way from Europe to the Baltic States.”

During the meeting, Mr Konstantin Sumar, who headed the Bug Euroregion Council and the Bureau of the Council for the last two years, handed over these credentials to his Ukrainian counterpart, the head of Volyn Regional Administration Mr Boris Klimchuk. Konstantin Sumar expressed confidence that Bug Euroregion will continue benefiting the people of the three regions which it unites.

Mr Boris Klimchuk, for his part, recalled that the first Euro-regions were created in 1945. "It was a time when Europe was divided not just by borders but by trenches. Today we do no have trenches. About 200 of such associations operate successfully in Europe. As for Ukraine, new cross-border associations have been set up, two of them with Russia, for the last year and a half,” said Mr Boris Klimchuk. He stressed that before and now the goal of a euroregion remains the same. These cross-border associations are aimed to maintain the atmosphere of good neighborliness, smooth over the contradictions between people and territories.

The next meeting of the Bug Euroregion cross-border association is scheduled for July 2013, in Ukraine. By this time, the parties must work out theri proposals on the development strategy of the association for 2014-2020.

Established in September 1995, Bug Euroregion encompasses border-sharing areas of Belarus, Poland and Ukraine: Brest Oblast (Belarus), Volyn Region (Ukraine), Lublin Wojewodztwo (Poland). In June 1996, Bug Euroregion joined the Association of European Border Regions. The territory of Bug Euroregion is 80,000 square kilometers, the population is 5 million. The largest cities within Bug Euroregion are Brest, Baranovichi, Pinsk (Belarus), Lutsk, Kovel (Ukraine), Lublin, Biala Podlaska (Poland).