State aid policy for environmental protection in Poland after accession to the European Union: did it meet expectations in the face of challenges?

Abstract

In the face of years of negligence in the environmental protection in Poland, the membership in the European Union has caused the adoption not only of a restrictive legal framework and now ambitious environmental goals, but also restrictions on permissible support for entrepreneurs. To date there is a lack of research combining both legal and financial aspects in this field. The aim of this study is to identify the extent, to which Poland’s policy of financial assistance to entrepreneurs has exercised the legal framework for granting state aid for environmental protection. To this end, we conducted a comparative analysis of EU legislation on state aid and Polish aid schemes for environmental protection, as well as statistical analysis of changes in granting aforementioned state aid in terms of its intended uses and areas of support in Poland. We found the high degree of cumulation to certain sectors and incidentality of environmental aid in Poland, both in terms of its objectives envisaged by the Commission and of support areas. That support did not follow a well-thought-out, coherent and systematic policy of supporting entrepreneurs, but was merely a collection of isolated interventions, depending on the availability of fund resources in the EU financial perspectives.