Cooperation process to date
In order to identify the most important regularities governing transborder cooperation in the Polish-German borderland, the main features of activities undertaken under Interreg programmes so far have been specified, including the network approach. The study focused on the already completed programming period, from 2007 to 2013.
In the Polish-German borderland between these two years a total of 460 organisations took part in three Interreg IVA programmes, which jointly realised 772 projects (excluding technical assistance projects and small projects) (Figure 12.1). The programmes of transborder cooperation in Poland were dominated by those realised by two partners, and their significant share (about 66 to 68 per cent) was characteristic of the entire western border. This was not in line with the desired direction for the development of transborder connections.
In the entire examined borderland between 2007 and 2013, the most common projects were those supporting tourist services (Figure 12.2). The reason for the prevalence of such project was the regions’ attractiveness to tourists, especially the seaside regions and the Oder valley. Interestingly, the importance of this thematic category was markedly lower than the mean for all Polish borderlands. In these areas, projects were more likely to have a developmental approach connected with educational infrastructure, corporate research and development and human potential. This approach was largely the consequence of increased activity (and interest) on the part of German organisations, which treated this type of activity as an element of
Figure 12.1 Number of projects, organisations and beneficiaries (occurrences of organisations) under Interreg IVA programmes 2007-2013 in the Polish- German borderland
Source: Own study, based on data from the Ministerstwo Rozwoju (Ministry of Development) and the European Union’s Joint Technical Secretariat (JTS).
Figure 12.2 Thematic categories of transborder cooperation projects in Polish borderlands between 2007 and 2013 by programmes, as of 2016 (in percentages of the number of projects, excluding categories below 2 per cent) Source: Own study, based on data from the Ministerstw'o Rozwoju (Ministry of Development) and JTS.
economic activation and a way to counteract the phenomenon of depopulation. Enterprises in the spheres of cultural infrastructure, cultural heritage and the promotion of partnerships, as well as the infrastructure of public security and revitalisation activities, had a greater share in the Polish-German borderland than in other Polish borderlands. Surprisingly, we observe a lower significance of activities in the fields of environmental protection and road construction.
The observed research results indicate that the area of the Polish-German borderland (compared to programmes in other borderlands) displayed significant differences in the character of cooperation (Dolzblasz, 2017). This mainly stemmed from local conditioning (e.g. environmental and socio-economic considerations) and slightly different needs reported by the German side.
An important element characteristic of transborder cooperation in the Polish-German borderland is the type of structure of the beneficiaries of particular programmes. This structure was defined according to the type of activity, separately for Polish and German units. The beneficiary structure on the Polish and German sides was similar, predominantly local administration organisations (which realised projects from various thematic fields) (Figure 12.3). A general characteristic of the Polish-German borderland was the
Figure 12.3 The share of programme beneficiaries at the Polish-German borderland between 2007 and 2013 by the main type of activity, as of 2016 (percentage of the number of beneficiaries)
Source: Own study, on the basis of data from the Ministerstwo Rozwoju (Ministry of Development) and JTS.
relatively high proportion of organisations supporting entrepreneurship among German beneficiaries. It needs to be stressed that the significant role of the NGO sector on the German side had a positive and empirically visible effect on the activation of NGOs on the Polish side of the borderland; their share among Polish cooperation organisations was higher than that of the other programmes in Polish borderlands (see Dolzblasz, 2017). This was probably the result of German units searching for partners across the border, thus encouraging their activation. This phenomenon reveals the activation of particular groups of local actors under the influence of transborder cooperation, which may, in the longer term, make the structures of local transborder cooperation actors highly similar on both sides of the border. Obviously, this phenomenon was observed only for the studied cooperation, implemented within the framework of EU programmes; it would be interesting in this context to examine whether this phenomenon also concerned bottom-up (e.g. informal) cooperation.
The spatial distribution of beneficiaries at the Polish-German borderland indicates a number of clear regularities and areas of increased cooperation activity. The main factors affecting the spatial distribution were the distance from the border (in the Polish-Saxonian and Polish-Brandenburg borderlands, about 50 per cent of beneficiaries came from the areas within a 10 kilometre radius of the state border), the presence of large urban centres (e.g. Szczecin, Pasewalk, Gorzow Wielkopolski, Zielona Gora, Cottbus, Jelenia Gora, Chemnitz, Dresden), including divided cities (e.g. Frankfurt (Oder) Slubice, Guben-Gubin, Gorlitz-Zgorzelec), transport availability, tourist functions (e.g. Swinoujscie, Karpacz), including areas of outstanding natural value (e.g. Schortheide Chorin Biosphere Reserve, Lower Oder Valley Landscape Park, Muscau Park, Upper Lusatian Moorland and Pond Landscape Park) (Figure 12.4).
