Cultural influences in cross border cooperation. An overview on Romania – Serbia cross border EU financed programme

Since the collapse of the Soviet bloc, European borders have undergone major transformations. Increasing flows of commodities, people, capital, information, and knowledge, coupled with the process of Europeanization, have critically changed the functions and significance of borders (Anderson and O’Dowd 1999, van Houtum 2000, O’Dowd 2003). In this context, we raise the question if culture does have a causal effect on economic development at this level of cross-border cooperation? The data on European regions suggest that it does. This paper focuses on identifying the way culture influence the way countries cooperates within cross border policies and programs in the European area, giving also an overview on particular issues of Cross Border cooperation between Romania and Serbia.