The final international study meeting, which was organized within the framework of ‘TEIN – platform for cross-border dialogue’, co-financed from Polish-Czech INTERREG V-A Program took place from 26th to 28th of February in the Polish-Czech Border region. Members of the Transfrontier Euro-Institute Network (TEIN) coming from the border regions of Austria/Slovenia/Italy, France/Spain, Ireland/Northern Ireland and Germany/France participated in the project. The aim is to exchange experiences and good practices between the Polish-Czech borderland and other European border regions in terms of developing solutions for cross-border problems, most of which have political, historical or ethnic/national roots.

 

 

The first day’s conference – attended by approximately 50 local cross-border practitioners – was opened by Mrs Anna Hetman, President of Jastrzębie-Zdrój and Mr Lukáš Szlaur, Chairman of one of the host organisations, Institut EuroSchola. After short presentations giving introductions to the project and the TEIN, historian Mr Mariusz Makowski (Museum of Cieszyn Silesia) provided an historical overview of the common heritage of Cieszyn Silesia and Dr hab. Andrzej Kasperek (University of Silesia) gave a talk about Cieszyn Silesia identity. The conference concluded with presentations from two local cultural initiatives, ‘The Cinema on the Border’ and the international theatre festival, ‘Without Borders’ (Petra Slováček Rypienová, Executive Director in Education Talent Culture and Katarzyna Dendys-Kosecka, Managing Director of the International Theater Festival ‘Without Borders’).

 

 

The second day was devoted to a number of site visits to INTERREG-funded projects working on behalf of the Polish minority community in the Czech Republic. These included the Pedagogical Centre for Polish Minority Schools; the Polish Congress in the Czech Republic, the Polish Cultural and Educational Association; and a Kindergarten and Primary school.

 

 

The study visit also gave the TEIN members the possibility to work in closed sessions.  The Polish and Czech partners presented conclusions they had drawn from the analysis of documentation from each of the participating border regions and learning from the other study visits and recommendations for the Cieszyn Silesia and wider Czech/Polish border region. This was followed by discussion of potential future cooperation projects among TEIN members.