In May, 1992 local and regional leaders from the neighboring areas of Hungary, Poland, Romania, Slovakia and Ukraine discussed the methods to promote and enhance cross-border cooperation in the Carpathian Mountains and the Tisza Valley. This initiative – the Carpathian Euroregion – marked the first attempt to create an "euroregion" as an institutionalized form of cross-border cooperation; and it was the first such grouping of its kind in Central and Eastern Europe when the Ministers of Foreign Affairs and local and regional leaders and the Secretary General of the Council of Europe, Mme Catherine Lalumiere officially established the Carpathian Euroregion in 1993.
Geographically, the Carpathian Euroregion is in the heart of Europe, a rural mountainous area centering on the Carpathian Mountain range and the Tisza River basin.The region can be characterised by economic under-development resulting from its peripheral location and complex history of inter-state and inter-ethnic relations. Although wide diversity defines the region in terms of language, religion, ethnicity communities share as many similarities as they do differences. A common history and geography, similarities in economic development, and common aspirations for economic prosperity and integration create a sense of community and a willingness to cooperate with each other.
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