Puńsk is a small town in Poland, about five kilometers from the Lithuanian-Polish border. Eighty percent of the 4,000 inhabitants are Lithuanians, whose families have lived here for centuries. Historically, Puńsk belonged to the Grand Duchy of Lithuania and was later part of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. After World War I, when Poland and Lithuania gained their independence, the borders between the two states were established. Puńsk has been part of Poland ever since.
Witold Liszkowski has been the mayor of the municipality for 27 years, making him a bridge-builder between Poland and Lithuania. He describes himself as a Lithuanian and European living in Poland. He studied in Vilnius and Warsaw and thus knows both cultures.
It is not easy to maintain a small community in a rural area within a border region. "We are doing everything we can to ensure that our community has a future, that the population decline is stopped, and that we don't disappear from the map," says the mayor. He emphasizes that it is particularly important for the Lithuanian population to stay here and for young people to return after their education and studies. Anna Kluczyńska, an employee of the town administration, explains that the Polish state has granted rights to the Lithuanian minority. This includes, for example, the existence of Lithuanian schools in Poland and the right to speak Lithuanian in public institutions. "All documents are prepared in Polish, but in the administration, we speak Lithuanian among ourselves. It's more natural because it's our mother tongue."
According to the mayor, his town is quite well-positioned. "The population decline is low compared to other border regions. But we have also invested a lot in recent years, for example, in schools, roads, healthcare, and in our regional museums," says the mayor. "However, we are very dependent on financial support from the European Union." A major goal remains to organize cross-border healthcare.
Puńsk is also part of the Euroregion Nemunas, founded in 1997. Initially, it comprised border areas from Poland, Lithuania, and Belarus, and from 2002, some eastern areas of the Kaliningrad Oblast (Russia) joined. Gintaras Skamaročius from Marijampolė, Lithuania (about 40 kilometers north of Puńsk), was involved from the beginning and was a director of the Euroregion for a time. A fundamental project to restore the network of Lithuanian and Polish border roads that existed before 1948 was initiated by him and implemented with partners from 2003 to 2009. This project served as preparation for the Schengen area of free movement. He still proudly displays his bag with the symbols of the project partners, which were meant to symbolize the dawn of a new era. The Nemunas River, which gave the Euroregion its name, connects the four participating countries (Poland, Lithuania, Belarus and Russia with the oblast Kaliningrad) geographically and historically. A goal of the Euroregion was peaceful cooperation based on mutual respect to improve the living conditions and quality of life of the people in the region.
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the Euroregion Nemunas has practically ceased to exist. Poland and Lithuania have stopped all cooperation with Russia and Belarus. Gintaras Skamaročius had great hopes for this four-country cooperation. He recalls that there were many disagreements and differing views from the start. "I often tried to moderate. But when the discussion is about what's better, Russia or the EU, it's hard to find a compromise." The participating partners often only thought about how they could get money from the EU for various projects. "My focus was always on how to bring people from the participating border regions together." Gintaras laments that much more could have been achieved for the people in the Euroregion if the cities and municipalities had cooperated more and there had been less competition among themselves due to limited project funds. He is still proud that in 2005, 2012, and 2018, three projects in the Euroregion Nemunas were recognized as examples of excellent cross-border cooperation. A blow to the Euroregion came in 2018, when Gintaras was classified as a "threat to national security" by Russia and Belarus. He was banned from entering Russia and Belarus for five years.
Nevertheless, under Gintaras's leadership, the Euroregion office in Marijampolė was still able to initiate and implement a major project to promote cultural tourism in the border region between Lithuania and the Kaliningrad region. For this purpose, two historic sites were renovated: a former manor house in the Lithuanian district of Šakiai was converted into a cultural venue for exhibitions and events. In a location in Kaliningrad region, the memorial museum for the Lithuanian writer Kristijonas Donelaitis (1714-1780) was renovated. A tourist route was also developed, connecting the cultural heritage of the Marijampolė county and the eastern part of the Kaliningrad Oblast. These connections are all now cut.
Anna Kluczyńska is a specialist for European Union programs in the town administration. Her focus is on Polish-Lithuanian cooperation. "We in Puńsk can make a major contribution here. We are all generally bilingual and are therefore good bridge-builders." Her main focus at the moment is on a new Lithuanian-Polish organizational structure, the "European Grouping of Territorial Cooperation (EGTC)". "This is not a funding program, but a legal structure for cities or regions from various EU countries to better organize joint projects." Previously, each country had to establish its own association. "Now, cross-border cooperation will be much easier," Anna is convinced. She emphasizes that all cross-border projects are always about bringing people together. "It's not just about infrastructure, but also about encounters between people from both countries." A project titled "Resilient Borders" aims to bring people together and get them involved across borders. Cross-border cooperation should become a natural and effective way of dealing with common challenges and opportunities for territorial development in the entire borderland.
The area along the Lithuanian-Polish border where the new grouping is active is also known as the Suwałki Gap or Suwałki Corridor, named after the Polish town of Suwałki. The 65-kilometer-long corridor between Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad is considered strategically important because it is the only land connection between the Baltic states of Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania and the other NATO member states. For Russia, the corridor represents an opportunity to establish a land connection between Kaliningrad and Belarus.
Witold Liszkowski remains calm about the military threat. "We are thinking about the future of our towns and the living conditions of the people who live here." He emphasizes that this threat is mostly raised by people who do not live here, and by journalists.
