The competitive position of border areas in relation to the polish and German regions

Abstract

Borderlands are areas where competitiveness develops in a very particular way. On the one hand, they are often preferred areas, which are less socio-economically developed. At the same time, the development of integration processes facilitates the establishing and realisation of cross-border cooperation. This is accompanied by increasing competitive pressure from neighbouring regions across the border, which is mostly linked to the building-up of the competitiveness of territorial units. The Polish-German borderland is an example of a region characterised by the greatest discrepancies in the level of socioeconomic development in the European Union and for this reason it was chosen for analysis. The purpose of this paper was to analyse spatial variation in the level of competitiveness of territorial units in the Polish -German borderland (NUTS2 regions). The position of the borderland in the socioeconomic structure of both countries was determined on this basis and the level of competitiveness of the regions on both sides of the border was compared. The analysis was dynamic in character and covered the years 2002 and 2008. In the light of the research conducted it was concluded that spatial preference was analogous to economic preference when analysing the relationship between the German part of the borderland and the rest of the country. On the Polish side of the borderland such a coincidence did not occur. The more advanced development level on the German side, although considerably higher, does not constitute "a civilization gap". In some respects Polish regions had a better competitive position than the German ones. The study revealed similarities in the main factors contributing to competitiveness on both sides of the border. However, the significance of these factors was different. © Małgorzata Leśniak-Johann, Andrzej Raczyk.