Central Statistical Office

Warsaw, 18 June 2010

            On 18th June this year, at 11 a.m., an open seminar on “Cross-border studies – results, problems, challenges” under the scientific patronage of Prof. Józef Oleński, Ph.D. the President of the Central Statistical Office took place in the building of the Central Statistical Office.

            Representatives of all institutions interested in the subject of cross-border studies were invited to participate in the seminar, and specifically representatives of: Embassies and Consulates of Belarus and Ukraine in border regions, Embassies of Poland in Belarus and Ukraine, Voivodship and Marshall Offices, selected units in the Ministries and central offices, Customs Service, Border Guard, National Bank of Poland, Institute of Tourism, Institute for Market Economics, Institute for Market, Consumption and Business Cycles Research, representatives of science, central and local media representatives as well as representatives of statistical offices.

            The purpose of organizing the open seminar was to present the results of the surveys of goods and services turnover in border traffic on the European Union’s external border on the territory of Poland starting from the third quarter of 2008, as well as the monitoring of border areas carried out since February 2008. The directions of development of cross-border studies for the subsequent years were presented as well.

            Mr. Prof. Jan Oleński, Ph.D., the President of the CSO, discussed the social, political and economic role and importance of cross-border studies. The president of the CSO drew special attention to their significance for the development of the Eastern Partnership. Professor J. Oleński emphasized that the Schengen Zone expansion and facilitations in movement of people and goods contributed to the loss of information sources on the scale of border traffic. It forces a need to use other research methods as well as to identify main research areas and discuss essential methodological aspects related to cross-border areas. Official statistics has begun working on creating a consistent research system for both external and internal borders.

            The General Counsel, the Spokesman for the President of the CSO Mr. Władysław Wiesław Łagodziński presented a historical origin of the studies, discussed the ideas of the survey of border traffic and movement of goods and services, and also presented the schedule of border research of the CSO starting from 1993. He also discussed the organizational system of research (including organization of surveying with particular focus on the safety of pollsters), the monitoring system as well as the production of information of analyses and publications prepared on the basis of survey results. He also emphasized the significance of cooperation with Border Guard and customs services. In conclusion, he pointed out the problems and consequences of development of cross-border research, including above all a gradual inclusion of another voivodships into the research: Lubelskie, Podlaskie and Warmińsko-Mazurskie voivodships. Border surveys are in his view an integral part of the Eastern Partnership project and clearly entail the necessity for broadening the research as well as initiating analogous research “on the other side of the border”, that is, in Ukraine, Belarus and on the territory of Kaliningrad.

            The director of the Statistical Office in Rzeszów, Marek Cierpiał-Wolan, Ph.D., presented the results of the survey of goods and services turnover in border traffic at the European Union’s external border on the territory of Poland in the first quarter of 2010. He also presented the monitoring of socio-economic phenomena taking place on the border areas carried out since  February 2008. This monitoring relies on the observation of changes and processes in many fields of life, of which among other things, demography, labour market, environment protection, health care, business entities, tourism and budgets of local governmental units. A multifaceted research program was launched on the whole EU’s external border on the territory of Poland, but methodological works on internal border research (so-called Schengen borders) are carried out at the same time too. The results of the pilot study conducted on Schengen border were discussed by Elżbieta Wojnar, Ph.D., the head of the Centre of Cross-border Areas Surveys and Statistics for Euroregions in the Statistical Office in Rzeszów. In the summary, the director of the SO in Rzeszów presented the directions of development of cross-border studies for the following years.

            In the next part of the seminar, Ivan I. Usticz, Ph.D., from the Ukrainian Academy of Science, the President of the Foundation for Cross-border Cooperation Development discussed the significance of the activities undertaken within the Cross-border Cooperation Program Poland-Belarus-Ukraine for the Ukrainian side.

            Ms. Prof. Irena Elżbieta Kotowska, Ph.D., submitted a paper entitled “Social situation in labour market in the eastern borderland”. Podkarpackie voivodship is the only voivodship in Poland which has such a profound analysis of the socio-economic situation of population based on the Social Diagnosis carried out by the Council for Social Monitoring under the supervision of Prof. Janusz Czapiński, Ph.D.

            The participants of the seminar received, among other things, publications entitled “Border traffic and movement of goods and services at the Polish-Ukrainian border in 2009” and “Monitoring of socio-economic phenomena in border areas” as well as an electronic version of the methodological journal of the survey of goods and services turnover in border traffic.