Can Cross-border Cooperation Boost Cross-border Ethical Governance?*

Abstract

Is there a ethical dimension in cross-border cooperation? Although EU border scholars and practitioners highlight how important is to consider the normative dimension of cross-border cooperation for its successful management, the ethical dimension has been instead so far neglected and understudied because of the lack of an appropriate methodological and theoretical background. Thus, I aim to fill this scholarly and policy-making gap by addressing this main question and by proposing an alternative ethical-humanist approach to cross-border cooperation. It is argued that the cross-border governance ethical code elaborated here is the necessary lynchpin to promote and strengthen integration and cohesion through cross-border cooperation within the EU. The outcome of this analysis is an alternative modern cross-border cooperation roadmap that promotes social conditions through which human beings as well as their natural environment can harmoniously develop through the fulfilment of specific ethical values.