Northern Dimension to include Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland, the importance of the Northern Dimension has increased considerably: eight EU Member States (Denmark, Germany, Poland, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Finland, and Sweden) surround the Baltic Sea, and the EU’s shared border with Russia has lengthened. Recent years have seen far-reaching changes in the geopolitical map of northern Europe. The Baltic States regained their independence in 1991. Finland and Sweden joined the EU in 1995, and Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, and Poland in 2004. These events greatly increased the Northern and Baltic “presence” of the EU, and substantially lengthened the common border shared by the
Poland–Russia border a majority of the individuals crossing the borders did so for the explicit purpose of short term (usually under one day) shopping; this was the case with 45% of foreigners entering Poland, and 87% of Poles entering Russia. Compared to traffic on other non-EU Polish borders, a much larger percentage (22% foreigners and 7% Poles) crossed the borders for the purpose of tourism and transit (16.5% foreigners). Because Kaliningrad Oblast is small, homogeneous and an exclave within the European Union, in 2011 the whole Oblast was granted the status of border area eligible to local border traffic rules. In reciprocity,