Title: Regional Profile Report - Central Europe

The stakeholders from regional planning and politics are closely interlinked within the FLOEZ
cooperation and the WIREG as an important regional actor provides a valuable engine and
moderator for creating an institutionalised network structure. In this way, the FLOEZ
cooperation managed to establish a joint cooperation approach towards issues of touristic
marketing and the development of former mining land, with some practical projects
implemented but a lot of remaining problems.
Nevertheless the FLOEZ cooperation is not without difficulties: One problematic aspect
remains the lack of funding for regional projects. The problem can be seen as two-sided:
While on the communal level a focused administrative structure to guide applications
successfully through the approval process is obviously underdeveloped; the sectoral divide
on federal level and a (perceived) general “indifference” towards the region’s problems
complicates the application process further. Both aspects hamper the initialisation of regional
projects, leaving many projects stuck in their concept phase.
This underlines, that despite strong organisational structures and personal ties, the
cooperation is not self-sustained and depends on the constant involvement and support of
the involved actors. It can be observed, that the lack of investment projects in FLOEZ has
resulted in a weakening of the cooperation and usage of mining potentials. This might also
be explained through a “generational change” and differing political agendas within the
FLOEZ communities. Many of the older representatives that were still personally connected
to the active mining industries have left office in the last years. This has led to a general
“normalisation” of mining issues in the political day-to-day business.
Regional Profile Zwickau-Lugau-Oelsnitz
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