W artykule porównano sposoby prowadzenia współpracy transgranicznej w szkołach w trzech euroregionach na granicy czesko-polskiej. Tekst oparty jest na analizie mikroprojektów, które realizowano we wszystkich tych euroregionach. Badania w zaskakujący sposób zaprzeczyły hipotezie wstępnej o spodziewanym najczęstszym wykorzystaniu funduszy UE we współpracy transgranicznej szkół w Euroregionie Těšín/Cieszyn Silesia, ze względu na historyczne powiązania obu części euroregionu i bardzo nieznaczną barierę językową. Hipoteza ta zakładała również najniższą intensywność i jakość współpracy w Euroregionie Nisa-Nysa-Neisse. Analiza wykazała, że pomimo pewnego korzystnego „początkowego nastawienia” do współpracy transgranicznej w Euroregionie Těšín /Cieszyn Silesia, nie poskutkowało ono największą liczbą aktywności w zakresie współpracy w edukacji. Należy to przypisać faktowi, że współpraca szkół nie jest rozumiana jako priorytet przez władze euroregionu. Zatem element ważniejszy niż „korzystne początkowe nastawienie” musi zostać dostrzeżony w aktywnym podejściu uczestników współpracy transgranicznej – głównie w sekretariatach euroregionów – do współpracy szkół.

Euroregions, their influence on the development of the Polish and Czech border The Polish-Czech borderland is a system of characteristic social realities and a place where two different cultures meet. The emergence of Euroregions creates opportunities for faster development of border areas and their integration. Cross-border cooperation is located in various frames of the borderland life that affect the everyday life of residents, i.e., in the spheres of the economy (cooperation between entrepreneurs), communication (expansion of the infrastructure and infostructural network), culture, sport and tourism, ecology, education and science (research, joint implementation of EU programmes), combating all crime, and warning and assistance in states of disasters and crises (e.g., in case of a flood, fire, epidemic threats). The research presented in the publication shows that there is still a need for a lasting good functioning of the Euroregions existing on the border of Poland and the Czech Republic. Keywords: Euroregion, borderland, cross-border cooperation, attitude, lifestyle

Life plans of the inhabitants of the Polish-Czech borderland against a comparative background

The article concerns a part of the research carried out among learners and university students from the Polish-Czech border area (Prudnik, Nysa and Opole counties on the Polish side and Moravian-Czech district on the Czech side) within the Pradziad Euroregion Project. The theoretical aim of the project was to get to know the lifestyle and quality of life of the inhabitants of the Czech-Polish border area, their life plans and identity, as regards the activities of the Pradziad Euroregion, as well as the knowledge of young borderland inhabitants about the life and problems of their neighbours from abroad. The practical aim of the project was to raise awareness of the role of quality of life for the functioning of the society by popularising the issue (conferences, publications) and the possibility of enriching the knowledge of these young inhabitants. This article presents only the part of the research that deals with respondents’ opinions on life plans in the context of the Polish-Czech borderland. The analysis was focused on one of the specific questions of the research: What are the life plans of pupils and university students from the Polish-Czech borderland? The research results refer to the declarations related to plans to stay in the homeland, perceptions of the respondents’ place of residence, or perceptions of the different qualities of their own towns and countries. In the data analysis, statistical methods related to testing the statistical significance of differences between variables with the Chi-square test (x2) were applied.

The Carpathian Euroregion as an example of crossborder cooperation in Central and Eastern Europe

Cross-border cooperation in Europe began in the 1950s. In Poland, the first Euroregions began to emerge in the early 1990s after the socio-political changes in Central and Eastern Europe. The Carpathian Euroregion, which was established in 1993, was the second Euroregion in Poland and the first in Slovakia and Ukraine. Its creation caused concerns among politicians, mainly at the central level. The reasons for these fears were ignorance of the rules of cross-border cooperation and the political situation - countries in this region were reforming and consolidating and some politicians were afraid of blurring of borders and sovereignty. The Carpathian Euroregion is a diverse region in terms of politics, ethnicity, culture and religion. It consists of the border areas of five countries. Despite political, economic and legal obstacles, local authorities have agreed on forms of cooperation and are implementing projects for the benefit of the region’s cross-border community.