SAFE Project: Polish-German Collaboration for Border Security

The foundation of Poland’s security lies in both internal efforts to make our country more resilient to various threats and international cooperation in this area. Following this approach, we have started the implementation of SAFE project in collaboration with the German neighbours.

The Shared Border, Common Challenges?

The SAFE project aims to prepare a cross-border security analysis in the Polish-German border area. Among the planned activities is the strengthening of cooperation between the two countries in preventing and controlling crime. This initiative received funding in 2023 from the Polish-German Foundation for Science.

The concept will be developed based on the results of two workshops on exchange and expertise on the German and Polish sides, involving identified key stakeholders such as police representatives, local governments, and civil society. The focus will be on the federal states of Brandenburg, Mecklenburg-Western Pomerania, Saxony, and Berlin on the German side, and the Polish voivodeships of West Pomerania, Lubusz, Lower Silesia, and Greater Poland.

Polish-German Recommendations

The actions will address crime and threats, as well as the subjective assessments of German and Polish citizens regarding instances of law violations in border areas. During the workshops, participants will identify the needs and future challenges in preventing crime in areas close to the borders in terms of intensified Polish-German cooperation. The project will identify and analyse the potential and challenges associated with conducting this research.

In conclusion, the SAFE team will summarize and evaluate the findings in a joint report. The document will also include recommendations for exchanging experiences and monitoring situations and trends in the broadly understood security and its perception in the Polish-German border area. The mentioned workshops will take place in Potsdam, Germany and Poznan, Poland.

Goals of the project:

1. Preparing an analysis of the security situation and its perception by residents of the Polish-German border region.
2. Comparison of statistical indicators related to crime and security situations to develop recommendations for the public sector, police, and administration.
3. Identification of stakeholders on both sides of the border who should be involved in exchanging experiences and continuous monitoring of the security situation on the Polish-German border, with a particular focus on local governments and civil society organizations.
4. The long-term goal is to repeat security analyses at regular intervals to study ongoing changes and assess the effectiveness of the actions taken. This way, the project will strengthen knowledge transfer between German and Polish entities in the field of crime prevention.

More information about the SAFE project can be found under this link.