The functioning of the common survey system for cross-border areas is significant for the effective use of information at the local, national and international levels.
The survey of socio-economic processes in cross-border areas is multidimensional, includes various aspects, and requires developing a methodology which will concern the external borders of both the European Union and the Schengen zone.
Cross-border survey modules:
- monitoring socio-economic phenomena in the transborder zone on the basis of administrative registers and statistical databases,
- questionnaire surveys (e.g. on borders, in households).
The survey of goods and services turnover in border traffic is an element of the survey of socio-economic processes in transborder areas. The survey was reactivated under new conditions, i.e. the conditions of Poland’s joining the Schengen zone and signing the agreement on small border traffic in 2008 between Poland and Ukraine.
The objective of the study was to obtain information from foreigners departing from Poland and Poles arriving back in Poland on the amount of expenditure connected with their stay respectively in Poland and abroad, including the purchase of goods and payment for services, with stating the structure of the expenditure incurred. The survey was identified as one of the priorities by the Commission for Cross-border Cooperation acting in the Polish-Ukrainian Intergovernmental Coordination Council for Interregional Cooperation during the meeting in Lutsk in December 2008.