Jan Szyszko, the Deputy Minister of Funds and Regional Policy, emphasizes the need for changes but not a revolution in the cohesion policy every seven years. He promises that in the work on the new financial perspective, Poland will strive to secure the largest possible “envelope” from the EU budget. According to the expert, the power to invest European funds should still largely remain with the regions. Poland’s decentralized spending model, he notes, has expected economic and political results.
“Poland is the European champion in investing European funds. We do it most efficiently and achieve the highest economic growth. We’re proving that, contrary to what some critics from other countries say, the cohesion policy is not a fund for agritourism or insignificant investments, as some like to present with a smirk. It’s a mechanism for creating powerful economic growth and citizen prosperity, and Poland is an example of that,” Jan Szyszko told Newseria Business agency. “Twenty years equals the highest economic growth in Europe and at the same time decreasing regional development differences, which means we are growing evenly and swiftly,” he added.
Data from the Ministry of Funds and Regional Policy (MFiPR) shows that no other country in our region has been able to utilize its presence in the EU to the same extent as Poland. In two decades, Polish export has grown sixfold and agricultural export tenfold. Polish municipalities have implemented 300,000 projects. Since 2004, transfers from the EU budget to Poland have amounted to nearly 250 billion euros, of which over 165 billion euros were funds within the framework of the cohesion policy.
Szyszko assures that the cohesion policy undergoes evolution every seven years and needs adaptations and adjustments, but no revolution. It is likely that priorities will have to be slightly changed, possibly expanded, to reflect today’s challenges. Currently, economic security, but also hard security, is a challenge for the entire European Union much more than it was in 2019 when we last discussed the shape of cohesion policy. “Considering the Polish contribution to the EU budget, Poland is the biggest beneficiary of EU funds. Before the commencement of the current seven-year period, experts highlighted that it would be the last financial perspective as beneficial for our country,” said the Deputy Minister of Funds and Regional Policy.
MFiPR’s analysis shows that one third of EU funds go to local governments, making them the main beneficiaries. The new law on JST’s income, recently signed by President Andrzej Duda, will positively affect local governments’ own contribution to projects supported by KPO and European funds. The Deputy Minister believes that investments in the regions are the answer to low competitiveness in the EU. Therefore, the role of local governments in the new EU perspective should be at least as strong as it is currently.
Negotiations for the EU budget for the new seven-year period of 2028-2034 will probably fall within the period of the Polish presidency in the first half of 2025. An important role in these negotiations will be played by the Budget Commissioner, who is to be Piotr Serafin.
Currently, the financial perspective for 2021–2027 has been implemented by Poland with a delay, but MFiPR emphasizes that in recent quarters, it has been able to make up for lost time. As of October, almost 8,400 investments worth a combined 104.7 billion PLN, including 82.6 billion PLN of EU co-financing, were contracted under the current financial perspective. More than 2,000 calls were launched, and over 40,500 applications were submitted under national and regional programs.
From the financial perspective for 2014-2020, Poland has already settled 99.3 percent of beneficiary expenditures. Over 102,000 investments with a total value of nearly 596 billion PLN are still being implemented with EU co-financing.
