Abstract
The author summarizes the implementation of regional policy 15 years after Poland’s accession to the EU as revealed in the official data coming from Polish regions, the Ministry of Investment and Development, the European documents and his own expert experience. Not only does he indicate the legitimacy of the adopted directions of intervention, but also he analyses the examples of misuse of EU funds. The latter cases, according to the author, are often associated with local politics, when investment decisions are based on current electoral calculations, and not long-term development strategy. The recommendations propose a change of the hitherto dominant compensatory model of the implementation of European funds to a modernisation model using knowledge as the main development component. This is also related to the need for a broader involvement of the academic community in regional policy.
Highlights
In the years 2004–2009, the tranches of European funds for the implementation of the cohesion policy accounted at almost 4% of the revenues of the public finance sector and over 1.5% of the Polish GDP (Wpływ, 2010, p. 33)
The largest and most effective group of beneficiaries of structural funds were local government units. This confirms the rightness of the concept of decentralisation of regional policy proposed by scientific and self-government bodies, carried out in the years 2007–2013 and subsequent programming plants
Though to a slightly lesser extent, the structural funds supported measures aimed at improving the quality of human resources, development of the information society and co-financing of the research and development sector
Summary
After accession, the transfers of EU funds to Poland were insignificant due to the low level of advancement of preparatory procedures for the implementation of particular operational programmes. The European funds increased in the programming period, 2007–2013, really contributed to the economic growth and had a positive impact on the labour market. In the 2004–2006 programming period, the majority of European funds were earmarked for co-financing infrastructure projects in the field of transport and environmental protection. The largest and most effective group of beneficiaries of structural funds were local government units. This confirms the rightness of the concept of decentralisation of regional policy proposed by scientific and self-government bodies, carried out in the years 2007–2013 and subsequent programming plants. The vast majority of projects implemented by self-government units – about 92% of their value – were investments in basic infrastructure in Poland, which has been neglected for many years Though to a slightly lesser extent, the structural funds supported measures aimed at improving the quality of human resources (under the measures of the European Social Fund, support was granted to over 1,144 thousand people), development of the information society and co-financing of the research and development sector
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