SMEs and institutions, especially from the new EU countries, do not sufficiently participate in trans-national projects. The result is a very low level of internationalization among these companies and institutions.

This situation is clearly visible in recent EU statistics presenting participation, for example, in the Sixth Framework Programme programme:

• Poland represents a country that is significantly under-performing in that context,
• Greece is close to the average and
• Germany is significantly above the average.

Transnational cooperation requires special skills and experience. At the same time, it requires building long-term relations based on trust. In this context, good communication and understanding of cultural considerations of foreign partners is crucial. In a later stage, good management and the coordination of  transnational partnership are important factors of such projects.

Recent studies show that three factors:

are the key success factors in the case of transnational projects. Lack of coordination and communications problems were mentioned as the most important barriers in the context of transnational cooperation.

A factor called “different expectations” – which can be associated with inadequate communication as well as not understanding the needs of the foreign partners - was listed in the third place.

Additionally, one of the most important barriers indicated was lack of experience among SMEs in pan-European collaboration.