On June 28 DPP was visited by the organization Granskommitten Varmland-Ostfold, a crossborder local government institution operating in the Swedish-Norwegian borderland. Several DPP professors shared their expertise with the group, which consisted of both elected and administrative officials from local and regional bodies. Karoly Jokay (DPP) lectured on local government trends and reforms in Central and Eastern Europe, Andrew Cartwright (DPP/CPS) gave an overview of rural development in the region, and Nick Sitter (DPP) talked about general political development in Hungary. In addition, Gyula Ocskay from the cross-border cooperation promoting organization CESCI presented regional experiences of using the tool European Groupings of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC).
The visit was a result of dissemination activities carried out by PhD candidate Sara Svensson, whose presentation to Granskommitten in Karlstad/Sweden in December 2011 generated the idea to conduct a study trip to Central and Eastern Europe. Sara Svensson organized the CEU/DPP event, and also took the group to visit her area of research in the Hungarian-Slovak borderlands.