54. Jahrgang/Heft 5-6/Mai-Juni 2004

Die Einigung Europas – Zugkraft und Kraftakt

Editorial Kräftemessen S. 5

Bronislaw Geremek
Wider die Erweiterungsskepsis. Das neue Europa und seine Feinde S. 9

György Konrád
Europas Identität und die Dominanz Amerikas S. 19

Stefan Auer
Das Erbe von 1989. Revolutionen für Europa S. 31

Barbara Lippert
Sternstunde oder Stolperstein? Erweiterung und Europäische Integration S. 47

Georg Vobruba
Grenzen des Projekts Europa. Von der Expansionsdynamik zur abgestuften Integration S. 61

Politik im Staatenverbund

Jean-Marc Ferry
Die EU, die postnationale Konstellation und das Problem der Souveränität S. 76

Rudolf Hrbek
Modelle politischer Ordnung. Föderalismus, Mehrebenensystem, variable Geometrie S. 87

Jürgen Neyer
Demokratisches Regieren in einem post-pathetischen Europa S. 106

Andreas Maurer
Agenda-Taking statt Agenda-Setting. Die Neuen im Verfassungskonvent S. 118

Timm Beichelt
Konstellationswechsel? Politische Konflikte in der neuen EU S. 136

Ines Hartwig, Phedon Nicolaides
Ein knappes Gut? Solidarität in der erweiterten EU S. 147

Michael W. Bauer
Erweiterungsdynamik? Das Europa der Regionen S. 160

Gwendolyn Sasse, James Hughes
Integration mit Tiefgang? Regionalisierung in Ungarn und PolenS. 180

Europas politische Gesellschaft

Winfried Thaa Zivilgesellschaft –
ein schwieriges Erbe aus Ostmitteleuropa S. 196

Christoph Linden
Europäische Bewegung. Zivilgesellschaft für Europa S. 216

Stephen Day
Die Osterweiterung der Europarteien. Ambivalenzen eines Familienzuwachses S. 223

Michael Dauderstädt
Brüder, zur Sonne, zur Freiheit. Sozialdemokratie – osterweitert? S. 236

Roland Freudenstein
Volkspartei oder Völkerparteien? Familienzuwachs in der EVP S. 251

Anna Schwarz, Jörg Jacobs
Bangen an der Oder. Ängste und Hoffnungen spiegeln sich S. 262

Jan Sokol
Europa spricht. Sprachenvielfalt und Politik S. 276

Ira Panic
Europa schreibt. Das Europäische an Europas Literaturen S. 286

Europas Politikfelder

Elmar Rieger
Wohlfahrt für Bauern? Die Osterweiterung der Agrarpolitik S. 296

Heinz Fassmann
Die große Freiheit? Zuwanderung und Niederlassung S. 316

Gerhard Gnauck
Muß Polen Deutschland dankbar sein? S. 330

Thomas Conzelmann
Verteilungsspiele ohne Grenzen? Die Osterweiterung der Strukturpolitik S. 333

Marzenna Guz-Vetter
Schwieriges Geld aus Brüssel. Polen und die Strukturgelder der EU S. 347

András Inotai
Vor dem take-off? Modernisierung statt Peripherie S. 360

Dorothee Bohle, Béla Greskovits
Ein Sozialmodell an der Grenze. Kapitalismus ohne Kompromiß S. 372

Johannes Baur
Europäische Verkehrspolitik. Zu Lande, zu Wasser und in der Luft S. 387

Liliana Andonova
Die Osterweiterung der Umweltstandards. Chemikaliensicherheit und Luftreinhaltung S. 397

Jakob Edler, Attila Havas
Einbinden, um aufzuholen. Die Erweiterung in der Forschungs- & Technologiepolitik S. 413

Wilhelm Knelangen
Freiheit, Sicherheit und Recht. Erweiterte Innen- und Justizpolitik S. 430

Kai-Olaf Lang
Störenfriede oder Ideengeber? Die Neuen in der GASP S. 443

Siegmar Schmidt
Vor dem Rollentausch. Osterweiterung und Entwicklungspolitik S. 460

Eva G. Heidbreder
Minderheitenschutz in der neuen EU. Beitrittskriterien nach dem Beitritt S. 473

Annegret Haase
Kooperation statt Exklusion? Euroregionen an Polens EU-Außengrenze, S. 484

Katarzyna Stoklosa
Laboratorien der Einigung. Grenzregionen am EU-East-End, S. 496

Abstracts, S. 507

Abkürzungsverzeichnis, S. 518

Abstracts

Bronislaw Geremek
Against “enlargement scepticism”: the enlargement of the EU and its opponents
The enlargement of the EU is one of the greatest challenges the Union has faced in its history, but challenges have always provided the impulses needed to move the Union forward. In order for this to be the case this time as well, we will need staying power. European public opinion must be made aware of the historic di-mension of this enlargement. Eurosceptics and those who are sceptical about enlargement must not be allowed to dominate the European debate. The reunifi-cation of Europe merits a calm approach, and there are perhaps grounds for satis-faction and some joy. This joy could counteract the influence of those who choose to see the continent divided into an “old” and a “new” Europe: Europe is unifying itself through its enlargement. What is coming into being deserves to be called, in its totality, The New Europe.

György Konrád
Europe’s cultural identity and America’s dominance
If Europe takes its vocation seriously, there is plenty for it to do in the world. What Europe has to offer is what it is made up of: its substance, its knowledge, its ex-periences, and its suffering. We can speak of the opportunity provided by the joint project, as well as the shared challenge. Neither America nor Europe can in the long term afford to work against the other. Nothing is straightforward in this rela-tionship.

Stefan Auer
Another look at the revolutions of 1989
In order to live up to its promise to become a community of shared values, the European Union should pay more attention to the legacy of the 1989 revolutions in Central Europe. The experience of the peoples of Central Europe showed that radical political change can be achieved by peaceful means. Thus the ‘conserva-tive’ revolutions in Central Europe challenged the exclusive paradigm of revolu-tionary change derived from the French Revolution. In contrast to 1789, the events of 1989 demonstrated that new beginnings are possible without a radical break with the past.

Barbara Lippert
A historic moment or a stumbling block? Eastward enlarge-ment and European integration
15 years have passed since the collapse of the communist system in East-Central Europe. The enlargement of the EU will have repercussions for European integra-tion. Is the birth of an EU with 25 member states a historic moment in the devel-opment of the European project, or will enlargement prove to be a stumbling block leading to the downfall of the Union? Once enlargement has taken place, devel-opment options and conceptions of order which have underpinned the integration project over a period of decades will be put to the test.

Georg Vobruba
Europe reaches its limits: from the dynamic of expansion to different degrees of integration
Up until now, the development of the EU has been characterized by interaction between integration and enlargement, and has followed the model of concentric circles with a more prosperous core and a partially integrated periphery. Now, however, this development cannot go much further. As the Union continues to expand, the costs of integration increase. There is therefore a growing contradic-tion between enlargement and deeper integration. The consequence is that the concentric circles model is turning in on itself: even if there is no political intention to bring this about, there are in reality growing signs that an EU with varying de-grees of internal integration is coming into being.

Jean-Marc Ferry
The EU, the postnational constellation, and the problem of sovereignty
The classical understanding of state and popular sovereignty constitutes the capacity for political action, but also unrestricted power. The idea of juridification, which is rooted in liberal and federalist thought, makes it possible to place limits on this power. However, the transnationalization of the economy has undermined the autonomy of the states and citizens’ rights. The European Union project facilitates the reclaiming of the capacity to take political action. It also contains the first signs of a legal community based on shared values, and of a political community beyond the state.

Rudolf Hrbek
Federalism, multi-level governance, and core Europe
There are three conceptions of political order that are of importance for the enlarged EU in the fields of politics and academic analysis. The idea of a federa-tion captures the federal quality of the EU; it turns out that the existing EU already shows clear signs of having a federal structure. The draft EU constitution drawn up by the convention strengthens this aspect of the Union. The idea of multi-level governance conceives of the EU as a specific, multi-layered form of governance. Concepts involving differentiation, such as core Europe or a Europe moving at different speeds give expression to ideas about strategies for integration, relating to ways in which integration can be advanced and deepened even if not all mem-ber states are immediately involved in new projects.

Jürgen Neyer
Democratic governance in a post-emotive Europe
The best way to think about political legitimacy in the European Union is to con-sider it as the product of the mutual support provided by the legitimation resources of the member states and of supranational bodies. This parallelism between dif-ferent sources of legitimation is an indispensable element of multi-level govern-ance. Integration in this sense does not release democratic states committed to the rule of law from their obligation to subject political rule to legitimacy; rather, it gives the state a central role. Consequently, the task of the EU is not to overcome the democratic state but to shape structures of discourse that go beyond states. This kind of “post-emotive” understanding of the EU takes due account of the Union’s fragmented societal foundations, and has the potential to guarantee a continuous process of political communication.

Andreas Maurer
Agenda-taking rather than agenda-setting: the role of the new member states in the convention on the EU constitution
The convention on the future of the EU was a novelty. Its members were free to act as they saw fit, and the procedures were more transparent, democratic, and rational than at the meetings of heads of government. The states due to accede in May 2004 participated in the convention. They were not isolated from the 15 exist-ing EU members, and did not form coalitions. Coalitions made up of different countries were formed from within the European Parliament, and parliamentarians from the members-in-waiting joined these initiatives. Only at the end of the con-vention process did government representatives form coalitions with representa-tives of the smaller states among the EU 15. Interest coalitions on central ques-tions of power in the EU became clearly visible at the Brussels summit in Decem-ber 2003. For the new members, the convention came too early for them to be able to identify shared interests and to act jointly. Coalitions are determined by policy fields, not on the basis of geography or the date of accession.

Timm Beichelt
Political conflicts in the European Union after enlargement
After enlargement, conflicts in the European Union will increase because of the growing heterogeneity of the Union. The character of conflicts in the enlarged EU is analysed on two levels. Conflicts between member states are likely to involve the new member states finding themselves in the minority, because they are mostly small or of medium size. With regard to domestic conflicts with a EU com-ponent, an instrumentalization of the symbol “Europe” is to be expected. There-fore, European party politics should be included in the analysis of conflicts in Europe. In the last section it is argued that the negotiation system of the EU is capable of taking up and processing the needs of the new member states. One precondition for this is the formulation of competing interests in the political sys-tem of the EU; giving expression to conflicts is therefore necessary for efficient European politics.

Ines Hartwig, Phedon Nicolaides
In short supply? Solidarity in the enlarged Union
With new members joining the European Union (EU), the Union faces a dilemma. As it grows larger and more diverse, it will need to strengthen solidarity between Member States. However, solidarity is an expression of kinship. As such, it de-pends on shared beliefs and acceptance of the political nature of the process of European integration. The growing diversity of the EU will make it more difficult to develop a perception of commonality. The EU can build solidarity by providing more European “merit” goods and other means of mutual support. In addition, there is a need for an explicit discussion of what may unite EU citizens beyond abstract values.

Michael W. Bauer
Europe of the regions: the preferences of the new member states in the convention on the EU constitution
The results of the convention on the future of the European Union confirm and extend the regional dimension of European integration. In connection with this, one can also expect regional mobilizing effects for the new EU member states in Central and Eastern Europe. However, the ambitious demands of the German Länder, which have traditionally taken the lead in this field, were only partly met. Some observers now expect that the enlargement of the Union will strengthen regional tendencies in the EU and could even set off a new dynamic leading in the direction of a “Europe of the regions”. However, the preferences expressed by the new members in the convention suggest that this round of enlargement will not increase the pressure on the EU in the field of regional policy.

Gwendolyn Sasse, James Hughes
Integration all the way down? Enlargement and regionaliza-tion in Hungary and Poland
The asymmetrical relationship between the EU and the new member states, and the latter’s institutional weakness, mean that we can expect there to be consider-able room for manoeuvre in EU conditionality and convergence between institu-tions and policy fields in Eastern and East-Central Europe. Subnational reforms have an important role to play in EU regional policy. Formal EU conditionality was weak, since the acquis is thin in this policy field and the EU has neither compe-tence nor a model for regionalization. The Commission’s contradictory prefer-ences and its constant but almost undefined demand for “regional administrative capacities” fanned the flames of domestic debates about regionalization and influ-enced the sequence and design of institutional reforms. A comparison between Hungary and Poland reveals diverging regionalization trends and underlines the limits of the EU’s influence. The normative Europeanization of subnational elites has not advanced very far. This could mean that there will be problems in the implementation of EU policy.

Winfried Thaa
The ambivalences of civil society: a European concept mi-grates from East to West
As the result of its employment by dissidents in East-Central Europe under com-munist rule, the long-forgotten concept of civil society became a key element of the theory of democracy. Even in the debates conducted in opposition circles, the concept had various meanings; sometimes it was used as a synonym for the in-tact values of pre-political lifeworlds, sometimes it denoted a political strategy for the creation of an oppositional force within society, and sometimes it reflected hopes for a gradual liberalization of the regime. Although this lack of conceptual clarity made it easier for the term to become the focal point of societal counter-identity in 1989, it soon lost its capacity to provide orientation in the post-communist debates that followed. On the other hand, it became a central norma-tive concept in debates on the reform of western democracies. Here, it connotes both the broadening of citizens’ opportunities for political action, and denationali-zation and deregulation in favour of the market.

Christoph Linden
Europe on the move: civil society and the European Move-ment
The enlargement of the EU and the advancing unification of Europe direct our attention towards the interaction between politics and society. The EU which has existed up until now and has been driven forward by economic and political forces now has new members which owe a significant part of their democratic develop-ment to the actions of movements for societal liberation. This can give integration a new dynamic. The deepening of the EU requires a Europe-oriented civil society. The European Movement seeks to mediate between civil society and politics and to increase the pressure for further democratization of European decisionmaking.

Stephen Day
The eastward enlargement of the Euro-parties: the ambiva-lences of a growing family
With the accession to the EU of the ten new member states, the Euro-parties also acquire new members. Just as the EU made admission conditional upon these states’ fulfilment of certain criteria,so too the Euro-parties laid down conditions such as the maintenance of democratic standards and the requirement that there should be programmatic agreement on the broad outlines of the party family’s positions. However, there are already signs that the Euro-parties are having to wrestle with a situation of growing heterogeneity. At the same time the new EU party statute, which regulates the way these parties are financed, promises for the first time to recognize them as European political actors.

Michael Dauderstädt
The eastward enlargement of social democracy?
As the EU is enlarged, so too is the political system of which the parties in the new member states are a part. These parties have been shaped by the transfor-mations of their countries, and occupy different positions in the respective party political landscapes. They also have different positions on European integration. Almost all of them were in favour of EU membership. An analysis of the social democratic or socialist parties reveals that their positions on European policy issues reflect national rather than party political preferences.

Roland Freudenstein
The eastward enlargement of the EPP: new Europe meets old Europe
After the European elections of 2004, parliamentarians from the new member states will take their seats in Strasbourg and Brussels for the first time. In spite of the differ-ences between them, they bring shared experiences and fundamental philosophies which will change the European party families. One particularly interesting aspect of this process promises to be the integration of the centre-right parties from East-Central Europe into the European People’s Party (EPP), or rather into its EPP-ED group in the European Parliament. Genuine contrasts will come into contact here. In the parliament, enlargement will largely be to the benefit of the EPP-ED group.

Jan Sokol
Linguistic diversity in Europe and its political significance
Since 1989, various shades of nationalism have once again plagued Central and Eastern Europe. Why have they been so virulent and dangerous during the mod-ern period? Since modernization took place in the 19th century, language has been a means of everyday communication and part of human identity, and has also played an increasingly important political role. Public opinion, the media, and political life require a shared language, and this tends to become the official lan-guage. Linguistic homogenization, which was successfully imposed at an early stage in the West of the continent, has failed at the European level. Consequently, Europe will also have to come to terms with its linguistic diversity in future. This, however, is not just a disadvantage.

Ira Panic
What is European about the literatures of Europe?
Literature is neither sociology, nor philosophy, nor history: it is an art. Literature enjoys the privilege of being able to invent itself, and it has a duty to draw atten-tion to itself. But fora in which literature discusses itself are not all that matters. Europe’s literatures are European because their readers are also European. Lit-eratures can be subject to the Zeitgeist, can be en vogue, scandalous, noncon-formist, conformist, dangerous, courageous, and individual – above all, individual. In this sense, Europe has no right to expect anything specific of its writers, but these writers can – or could – expect something of Europe.

Elmar Rieger
The eastward enlargement of agricultural policy
The eastward enlargement of the European Union introduces the complete appa-ratus of a welfare bureaucracy into East and Central European agriculture. The introduction of the norms and institutions of the Common Agricultural Policy, how-ever, also means a much needed higher level of social security for impoverished farmers and new policies for rural development. The crucial variable for achieving West European living standards is bureaucratic capacity building; this is much more important than the level of prices and subsidies.

Heinz Fassmann
EU enlargement and the interim arrangements on residence
Freedom of movement for the citizens of EU member states, in the shape of the right to choose one’s place of residence within EU territory and to pursue gainful employment there, is one of the EU’s basic freedoms. However, this freedom proved to be a major obstacle in the negotiations on EU enlargement between the European Commission, the existing member states, and the candidates for mem-bership. The “old” member states were afraid that after accession, the fact that wages were significantly higher in the West would lead to large-scale migration from East to West. The new member states felt that the demand for interim rules meant they were being treated as second-class members. After prolonged and difficult negotiations, it proved possible to agree on a solution which analysts have seen as workable and acceptable. This article summarizes studies of the potential for East-West migration, examines the negotiation process, and concludes with an assessment of the demographic and economic aspects of the outcome.

Anna Schwarz, Jörg Jacobs
Looking ahead from both sides of the Oder
On the eve of EU enlargement, survey data reveal political hopes and specific fears concerning the economic future on both sides of the German-Polish border. They show that high expectations of welfare and an improved labour market on the Polish side are accompanied by worries about new competition on the Ger-man side. However, the number of people likely to migrate into Brandenburg in order to work there should not be overestimated.

Thomas Conzelmann
Distribution games without frontiers? The eastward enlarge-ment of EU structural policy
EU structural policy for economically disadvantaged regions has been one of the most contested policy fields within the negotiations on EU enlargement. The arti-cle discusses the evolution of EU structural policy up to the current day and out-lines cleavages within the current reform debate. Although the candidate countries have hitherto been only marginally relevant to the debate, their influence is likely to increase with their accession to the EU. Important factors include their mem-bership of the decision-making bodies of the EU, and the power of norms that inform EU structural policy and which rule out unequal treatment of EU members.

Marzenna Guz-Vetter
Difficulties with money from Brussels: Poland and the Euro-pean Union’s structural funds
Poland will be entitled to a significant proportion of the EU’s regional assistance funds. The scale of structural assistance in the next budget period, 2007-2013, and the decentralization of regional policy in Poland will be determined by how effectively the country is able to administer these funds. The government should focus on the quality of the projects funded and ensure that these projects are embedded as efficiently as possible in Poland’s economic development strategy, rather than concentrating on the quantity of the EU resources it can call upon. There are still deficiencies in the Polish administration’s preparations. In the first few years after accession, significant problems in the spheres of project manage-ment and co-financing can be anticipated.

András Inotai
Successful modernization or a permanent periphery?
With the first wave of eastward enlargement, the last group of countries from Europe’s “semi-periphery” joins the circle of Europe’s institutions. This group dif-fers in a number of respects from all the peripheral economies that have joined the Union in the past. In some countries of East-Central and Northeastern Europe, a number of economic indicators suggest that a successful, less expensive, more rapid, and more efficient integration may be possible, in a way that one would not expect on the basis of previous experience with the Union’s less developed economies. In order to ensure sustained modernization in these countries, the key states of the EU’s previous 15 members must demonstrate that they are prepared to carry out reforms and to look to the future.

Dorothee Bohle, Béla Greskovits
The eastward enlargement of a social model?
The integration of the East European states with the West has not yet led to an alignment of social conditions in the two parts of Europe. The social differences between East and West are the societal consequences of the European division of labour. Western firms make use of the locational advantages of Eastern Europe, in particular low wages and a well-qualified workforce, in order to move labour-intensive parts of the production process to the East. The industrial basis of the new East European capitalisms is not favourable to the compromise be-tween employers and employees which lies at the root of the West European social model. In historical terms, the industrial basis of this compromise was the dominance of capital-intensive industries making consumer and producer goods.

Johannes Baur
Transport gets the green light: the significance of enlarge-ment for the transport sector
Transport and the transport industry are one of the main pillars of Europe’s inter-nal market. The transport sector accounts for over 10 per cent of the EU’s GDP, and has more than 10 million employees. An efficient transport network is the basis of the free movement of goods and persons in the EU, without which Euro-pean life and the European economies would today be unthinkable. The founders of the European Community had good reasons for laying down the requirement for a joint transport policy in the Treaty of Rome. When the internal market was created in the early 1990s, European transport policy also received a boost. Among the consequences were the liberalization of the road haulage industry and of European air travel.

Liliana Andonova
European environmental policy: security in the chemical in-dustry and the prevention of air pollution
The new member states have performed a great feat of adaptation in adopting and implementing the EU’s extensive environmental legislation. The EU has influ-enced the new member states’ environmental policies through a variety of instru-ments, not simply by specifying measures to be taken by the governments. Fur-ther significant factors have included changes in the interests of national eco-nomic actors brought about by market pressure, and the ways in which transna-tional economic associations have made information available. This article uses the examples of the chemical and electric power industries in the Czech Republic, Poland, and Bulgaria to show how the conditions laid down were met in various constellations and with different institutional arrangements.

Jakob Edler, Attila Havas
The long road to convergence: enlargement in research and technology policy
What are the implications of enlargement for research and technology policy? Well before May 1, 2004, public and private researchers and national political actors in the new member states were integrated into EU activities. The adapta-tion and learning processes thus initiated are making full integration easier and will lead to broad convergence in national research and technology policies. Enlargement is happening at a convenient time, since the EU’s European Re-search Space programme is advancing community-formation in this policy field.

Wilhelm Knelangen
Freedom, security, and law: enlargement and the fields of justice and home affairs
The European Union has made satisfactory progress in the fields of justice and home affairs a necessary condition of accession. This reflects both the growing significance of this area of policy and fears in West European societies of a “loss of security”. The police, judicial systems, and civil services of the East-Central European states have been modernized at considerable expense, and have been incorporated into the architecture of the common space of freedom, security, and law. Even so, considerable problems remain, so that one must anticipate a longer phase during which these countries are “brought up to” EU standards. The border controls, to which excessive significance is attached in the public debate, will not be removed before 2006.

Kai-Olaf Lang
Troublemakers or sources of ideas? The new EU member states in European foreign and security policy
The foreign policies of the new EU member states in Central and Eastern Europe are characterized by thinking in terms of the classical categories of security policy. Because they are afraid that the great powers, especially Russia and Germany, will divide Eastern Europe up into spheres of interest, all 8 of these states seek US support. Within the framework of the CFSP and the ESDP, they are endeav-ouring to maintain the transatlantic commitment in European foreign policy that is primarily guaranteed via NATO. In order to keep the USA in Europe, they are prepared to support the transformation of NATO into an alliance for military de-ployments outside Europe, which the USA understands as an addition to the alli-ance’s tasks.

Siegmar Schmidt
Eastward enlargement and EU development policy
It does not look as though it will be easy to integrate the new member states into the EU’s development policy: the states involved have hardly any properly func-tioning organizations that could implement this policy; the legal basis and substan-tive definition of the issue are inadequate; and the financial resources available are below the average for the 15 states that were EU members up to May 2004. There is little awareness of development cooperation as an issue, and there are hardly any historical ties with developing countries. It is therefore likely to be diffi-cult for these countries to accept a new role as disbursers rather than recipients of EU funds. At the same time, it will be in the security interests of the new EU mem-bers to seek to bring about a reorientation of development cooperation towards their immediate regional environment, and to argue that greater consideration should be given to the promotion of democracy and human rights.

Eva G. Heidbreder
Before and after accession: the protection of minority rights after EU enlargement
The Copenhagen mandate, on which the Commission based its monitoring of minority protection, did not include any specifications on the application of the accession criterion. Moreover, the EU lacked any internal competences in this field. The Commission established an effective monitoring system. However, this system suffers from the contradiction that it only relates to the candidate coun-tries. In essence, this made a strict application of the criterion impossible. Never-theless, the article concludes that the way in which the criterion was transposed had a positive impact, and that the implementation of eastward enlargement has had more far-reaching consequences for human rights policy in the EU.

Annegret Haase
Integration instead of exclusion? Euroregions on the EU’s new external borders
The Euroregions set up in the 1990s are considered to be a way of preventing exclusion on the EU’s new external borders. Excessively euphoric expectations have, however, in the past soon encountered reality in the shape of bureaucratic, financial, and political obstacles. In addition, it was in many cases not a sense of attachment, common goals, or the prospect of strengthened trans-border coop-eration in the very large and heterogeneous regions which were the decisive fac-tors in the creation of Euroregions, but rather hopes that setting them up would ensure easier access to EU funding. Nevertheless, the Euroregions do promote the cohesion of neighbouring regions. There have been some successes, and the system also has the potential to shape cooperation more effectively under today’s conditions.

Katarzyna Stoklosa
Laboratories of unification: border regions and European in-tegration
After Poland’s accession to the EU, the country will have to be involved in the Union’s joint policy towards its neighbours – Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. Po-land’s particular capacity to contribute in this area results from its experience of cross-border regional cooperation. The article looks at the question of how far Poland’s regional policy on its borders with these countries can provide a positive impulse for EU policy, and where there are shortcomings.