ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of the historical, domestic and external obstacles, or barriers, to cross-border cooperation (CBC) with the EU. Building on the empirical findings of field research conducted in Euroregion Neman in 2010. It evaluates Trans border-breaking potential in a field of cooperation which is a traditional driver of confidence-building initiatives across EU borders: environmental protection. In order to maintain contacts with Western donors, many pro-European civil society activists retract behind youth, education and charity organisations. The Belarusian regime remains a reluctant partner in most of the EU's regional integration initiatives, notably the Eastern Partnership (EaP), a cooperation platform established by the EU in May 2009 as a means to draw its several eastern neighbours closer. The inhabitants of micro-Euroregions seem, however, to identify more closely with the Euroregional project in cases where CBC programmes positively affect the life of borderlanders in such fields as public health, education, cultural and school exchanges and sports competitions.
