Abstract
This paper determines the extent to which rural areas in Poland have been beneficiaries of the EU’s Cohesion Policy (CP). The amount of funds allocated to rural areas at the local (gmina/commune) level as part of the total CP obtained by Poland from 2007 to 2018 was estimated. The spatial distribution of that allocation was then determined. Whether the level of absorption is linked to the separately computed rural development level in communes was examined. This then made it possible not just to determine the spatial pattern of the absorption of CP funds but also to identify the main social and economic correlates of their high levels of absorption. It was found that nearly 40% of CP funds for Poland were allocated to rural areas, inhabited by 40% of the country’s population. However, this seemingly balanced allocation was somewhat undermined by its spatial distribution: the highest absorption was reported in over a third of communes with a high level of development while it was also found in less than a fifth of communes with a low level of development. Communes with higher levels of absorption have a more favourable local budget situation and a high degree of deagrarianisation of their local economies. The absorption level is more highly correlated with the variables characterising the extent to which an agricultural area has turned into a multifunctional area than with a commune’s absorptive capacity.
Highlights
Rural communes in Poland are highly spatially diversified, which is a consequence of natural conditions as well as historical events in different regions
The analysis shows that microregions at a lower level of socio-economic development absorb less structural funding
Taking Poland as its case study, the paper has explored the extent to which rural areas benefit from the Cohesion Policy (CP)
Summary
Rural communes in Poland are highly spatially diversified, which is a consequence of natural conditions as well as historical events in different regions. There are many discussions in the literature on the relationship between economic conditions and the advantages that some areas owe to their geographical location [1,2,3]. These are identified with benefits of communes’ location in relation to urban centres, and to some extent with the diversity of the rural settlement network [4,5]. Levelling out differences in the development of areas (regions) is determined by the potential of limited human resources, social capital, financial capacity, or the local economies [12,13]
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