The conference based on findings from the research case study 'Border as a Resource: Petty Trade as an Element of Poverty Economy along the new EU Border Between NE Poland and the Russian District of Kaliningrad' funded by the Volkswagen-Foundation. Representatives from Germany, Poland and the Czech Republic discussed the social and economic situation in the eastern borderland of the EU. As part of the transformation process in the area a remarkable informal economy developed in which both petty trade and smuggling, i.e. legal and illegal elements, are closely integrated.
