ABSTRACT
Transboundary co-operation has become part and parcel of the European integration process with its endeavour to dovetail policies and practices of different national systems. The brave new world of co-operation between Poland and Germany along their border, for example, has surprised many by the cordiality of its relations and the success of its project-led development, supported by the European Union (EU). The interchange has generated further bilateral arrangements around more or less the entirety of the Polish borders, not to mention links further afield in the Baltic and elsewhere. With the help of a series of interviews held in the eastern, western and southern Polish border regions with actors closely involved in the transboundary co-operation process, this essay examines differences in the approach to the cooperative agendas of different national groupings, and tries to assess whether this interchange may create a new identity with its own cultural dynamic, or whether it is a rather ephemeral phenomenon, generated by financial incentives.
