More effective, closer and above all stable mutual cooperation of Bratislava with the federal states of Lower Austria and Burgenland

Cooperation within the framework of “baum_cityregion” has a 15-year history. The first smaller common activities and studies on the topic of the city of Bratislava and its surroundings have been taking place since the beginning of the millennium. From 2011 and 2022, a series of three projects supported by European Union funds with the participation of Lower Austria and Burgenland was implemented under the abbreviation “baum” (“Bratislava-Umland”). This series of projects laid the foundations for the current cooperation. Initially, it focused only on the topic of territorial development, but the spectrum of topics gradually expanded. In 2017, a joint baum_cityregion coordination office was opened in Bratislava. Since then, continuous and close cooperation has been ongoing between Lower Austria, Burgenland and the city of Bratislava in the area of cross-border issues of the city and its surroundings.

Attention has more recently been focused on the permanent securing and institutionalisation of this cooperation. The result is an agreement on the founding of a permanent baum_cityregion working community, which was sealed by the first meeting of the political committee of the working community on 12 November 2025 in Bratislava.

The first joint meeting of the political committee was attended by the Deputy Mayor of Bratislava, Jakub Mrva; the President of the Lower Austrian Provincial Parliament, Karl Wilfing; and the Burgenland Provincial Councillor, Heinrich Dorner. The event was also supported by the participation of the Austrian Ambassador to Slovakia, Johannes Wimmer.

The President of the Lower Austrian State Parliament, Karl Wilfing, expressed his pleasure at the working meeting that it had been possible to institutionalise baum_cityregion as a permanent establishment:

“The city of Bratislava is closely connected functionally to Lower Austria in the area of cross-border commuting and in many other areas. Together with the city of Bratislava and the Bratislava Self-Governing Region, we are also financing the cross-border bus route 901 from Hainburg an der Donau to Bratislava. We expect our regions to be even more strongly connected in the future. With the baum_cityregion working community, we are creating a suitable tool that will allow us to coordinate effectively with the city of Bratislava and better solve strategic projects together. The baum_cityregion coordination office in Bratislava plays a key role in this, serving as our contact office for the city of Bratislava. We look forward to even closer cooperation with the Slovak capital.”

Similarly, Burgenland’s Provincial Councillor Heinrich Dorner also stressed the importance of cooperation:

“The functional city region of Bratislava extends beyond the borders of Slovakia to municipalities in Burgenland, Lower Austria and also in Hungary. The municipality of Kittsee, in particular, has been strongly affected by immigration from Slovakia in recent years. Aside from this, there are also new development areas in Bratislava directly along the border with Burgenland. The migration of residents from the city and the development districts near the border have a direct effect on Burgenland and stress the need for cross-border communication and information channels. The baum_cityregion working community plays an important role as an information centre in this regard. Today’s working meeting sets the course for additional trustworthy cooperation with the city of Bratislava. We are thus taking the cooperation to a new level.”

Current developments in the cross-border city region of Bratislava and the surrounding area were also discussed at the joint working meeting. Bratislava Deputy Mayor Jakub Mrva confirmed ambitious plans for future cooperation:

“The City of Bratislava, on the one hand, is focused on continuing and deepening the existing cooperation with Lower Austria and Burgenland. On the other hand, we want to expand this cooperation to the Hungarian county of Győr-Moson-Sopron. I’m pleased that this request has also been confirmed by the Austrian side. The county representatives are now obtaining observer status in the steering committee of the working community. This is very good news, because in view of the specific location of Bratislava on the border, we need an intensive exchange of information with our neighbouring regions in Austria and Hungary. Only in this way will it be possible to use our common potential in various areas.”

How does the new baum_cityregion working community work?

Cooperation within the baum_cityregion has as a general objective to support and facilitate sustainable territorial development and cooperation between the federal states of Lower Austria and Burgenland and the city of Bratislava (as well as municipalities, city districts and other interested parties). The goal is to take advantage of cross-border potential, overcome cross-border obstacles and exchange information in the following areas:

1. culture and tourism, 2. protection of nature and the climate, 3. space and people, 4. mobility.

For selected initiatives in thematic areas, baum_cityregion organises working meetings and thereby also supports the development of independent cross-border projects and cooperation. The territorial focus is on the city of Bratislava and its immediate surroundings in the Austrian districts of Gänserndorf, Bruck an der Leitha and Neusiedl am See.

The institutionalising of the baum_cityregion cooperation in 2025 will move it to a new, sustainable and more efficient level. The new working community has three bodies: a political committee, a steering committee and a coordination office. The political committee, as the highest body, sets the strategic direction of the working community. Lower Austria, Burgenland and the city of Bratislava are represented in it by high-ranking politicians. The steering committee prepares the decisions of the political committee at the administrative level and assigns the relevant tasks to the coordination office. The coordination office is, in turn, responsible for carrying out the decisions of the political committee and the steering committee, as well as for the operational implementation of the tasks of the baum_cityregion working community. On the Austrian side, this task is handled by employees of NÖ.Regional.GmbH (the EU agency for all municipalities and cities in Lower Austria), i.e., jointly for the federal states of Burgenland and Lower Austria. On the side of the capital of the Slovak Republic, Bratislava, the baum_cityregion agenda is covered by the city department for urban strategies and analyses.

The working community is supported financially by the federal states of Lower Austria and Burgenland and the capital of the Slovak Republic, Bratislava.

For more information, please visit web BAUM ↗︎.