Cross-border Cooperation in Central Europe: A Comparison of Culture and Policy Effectiveness in the Polish–German and Polish–Slovak Border Regions

Abstract

Cross-border cooperation is recognised as an important aspect of regional development and especially EU cohesion policy. Policy effectiveness depends on how well programmes are suited to different border regional contexts. This essay analyses the factors that shape cooperation by comparing the Polish–German and Polish–Slovak border regions. Particular emphasis is placed on the cultural factors that set these two regions apart. The essay reveals that close-knit networks across the Polish–Slovak border promote successful policy definition and implementation. At the same time, the absence of such networks across the Polish–German border has led to a high degree of policy innovation.

Notes

¹ Moreover, Slovak municipalities could only commit to full membership after 1998 when Mečiar's Prime Ministership, which was hostile to all sub-national activism, ended.

² Author's interview with a policymaker, Frankfurt (Oder), 2 March 2009.

³ Author's interview with a policymaker, Jelenia Góra, 1 April 2009.

⁴ Author's interview with a policymaker, Dresden, 2 April 2009.

⁵ Author's interview with a policymaker, Kraków, 1 June 2010.

⁶ The authors are grateful to Maciej Smętkowski for raising this point.

⁷ Author's interview with a policymaker, Žilina, 1 July 2010.

⁸ Author's interview with a policymaker, Bielsko–Biała, 2 June 2010.

⁹ Author's interview with a policymaker, Kraków, 2 June 2010.

¹⁰ Around 80% of projects are conducted by partners who already cooperated with each other either in INTERREG projects or earlier during spontaneous events (author's interview with a policymaker, Kraków, 2 July 2010; interview with beneficiaries in Žilina, 1 September 2011).

¹¹ Author's interview with a policymaker, Gorzów Wielkopolski, 4 May 2009.

The authors would like to thank Irene McMaster, Martin Myant and Maciej Sme¸tkowski as well as two anonymous reviewers for their helpful comments on earlier drafts of this essay.