The significance of the absorption of EU funds in the socio-economic development of the subregions of Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia

Abstract

Within the EU cohesion policy, higher and lower developed regions, taking into account only GDP per capita, are subcategorised. Based on that, areas qualifying for obtaining support from aid programs of the general EU budget are established. The aim of the article is to attempt to specify the co-dependency between the absorption of EU funds and the changes in the level of socio-ceonomic development in the regional dimension. The research was conducted at the level of 95 NUTS-3 units in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia in three stages. In the first stage, the level of the development of the subregions in Poland, the Czech Republic, and Slovakia is exhibited, subcategorising three factors of that growth based on 31 indicators: “the society”, “the economy”, or “the natural environment”. In the second stage, the variation in the absorption of EU funds in the researched units is demonstrated. In the third stage, the co-dependencies between the extent of the absorption and the changes in the development within the arrangement of the factors of that development are specified. In the article, a hypothesis is verified according to which the absorption of the EU funds impacted, above all, the development of “the economy” component. As a result of the examination conducted, it has been concluded that the absorption of EU funds impacted the changes in the level of the development of the “economy” sector to the largest extent. It confirms the proper direction of the EU fund intervention, which was made accessible above all to the benefit of the development of that factor.