Współpraca transgraniczna w ramach euroregionu Pomerania

The paper is an analysis of the origin of the Euroregion ‘Pomerania’ and its activity in 1996–2013. The Euroregion ‘Pomerania’ is a formalised cross-border or transnationalcooperation between three contiguous regions located in Poland (Zachodniopomorskie), Germany (Mecklenburg-Vorpommern) and Sweden (Skania). The analysis includes the development of the links between the three countries in different aspects: economic, social, touristic and infrastructural, and the forms and effects of the cooperation within the Euroregion.The paper seeks the answers to the following questions: (1) What forms of cross-border cooperation in the Euroregion ‘Pomerania’ were the most important ones? (2) Whatwere the benefits of the cross-border cooperation for the Euroregion? (3) What were the difficulties in the cooperation within the Euroregion ‘Pomerania’? and (4) Why did they arise?The analysis shows that the cross-border cooperation between contiguous regions in Sweden, Germany and Poland has brought benefits of various kinds – economic,cultural, touristic and infrastructural – to all the three countries and it has decreased the disproportion in the level of development between the areas belonging to the Euroregion ‘Pomerania’. The cross-border cooperation has brought the participants closer (especially the Poles and the Germans), and the communities of the Euroregion ‘Pomerania’ have striven to break down the stereotypes and international barriers. The development of the relations between the participating regions have been fraught with difficulties; they resulted from linguistic barriers and from a lack of basic knowledge about the history and culture of the neighbouring countries and about the social processes that were taking places there. The Swedish partner has been less active in comparison with the other two partners.