Communicating without borders: opening of a cross-border cooperation forum between local institutions and organizations 

The project resumes the cross-border cooperation undertaken with the Castelmonte Covenant signed in 1999, that established the Board of Mayors and the Joint Italian-Slovenian Technical Committee. The Covenant also put forward the idea of extending the cooperation to a wider territory including the bordering area between Tarvisio and Gorizia. The project aims at implementing this initiative by setting up a forum, which consists of thematic round tables and is going to carry out political cooperation initiatives. The forum is organized according to different operational groups - institutional (concerning local administrations and development agencies) and thematic groups (related to the technical component of coordination and social, cultural and economic planning); the forum provides representation to the institutional components and to the representative organizations. Moreover, the Forum intends to favour the participants’ mutual knowledge and to coordinate several initiatives undertaken in the bordering area, through joint planning of cultural and socio-economic activities, in order to ensure a harmonious and synergic development. The groups’ work is collected in the homonymous bilingual publication, which is meant to be the starting point for the cross-border planning of the Mountain Community in cooperation with the Regional Development Centre of Kobarid.