Euro-regions

Since 1990, 16 Euroregions have been created alongside Poland's borders. Euroregions are the areas of trans-border co-operation based on agreements signed by the local authorities of adjacent countries.

The aims of the Euroregions are to enhance relations between neighbouring regions, develop their infrastructure, foster economic cooperation, protect the environment, and to promote tourism, and cultural and educational activities.

These trans-border regional entities include the Pomeranian Euroregion (Poland, Germany, and Sweden), the Neisse Euroregion (Poland, Czech Republic, and Germany) and the Carpathian Euroregion (Poland, Ukraine, Hungary, Slovakia, and Rumania).

European institutions

Poland lies in the central part of the European continent, the geometrical center of which is near Warsaw. This is where the lines from Nordkyn in Norway to Matapan in Greece, and from Cabo da Roca in Portugal to the central Urals intersect. The boundary between the East and West European continental masses also runs through Poland.

With the total surface area of 322,500 sq km (312,600 sq km of land, 1,200 sq km of inland waters, and 8,700 sq km of territorial waters), Poland  it the ninth largest country in Europe, after Russia, Ukraine, France, Spain, Sweden, Germany, Finland and Norway (and the 63rd largest in the world).

Poland's reentry into western Europe, from which it had been forcibly separated since the end of World War II, was a gradual process. By 1996 the country had become a member of the Council of Europe, established economic ties with the European Union (EU), and been admitted to the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development.

In 1999 Poland became a member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.

Poland (with other candidate countries) finished the accession negotiations in December 2002. Than the Accession Treaty was signed in Athens on 16th April 2003. After the ratification of that Treaty, Poland and other 9 countries became the members of EU on 1st May 2004.