Cohesion Policy in Poland and in the Czech Republic – Challenges and Prospects

Abstract

The aim of the cohesion policy is to accelerate the socio-economic development of Member States and their regions. Poland as well as its closest neighbour, the Czech Republic, have benefi ted from structural funds and the Cohesion Fund. The effects of provided aid have already become apparent but they differ given the scale of problems, including regional issues existing in these countries, and the amount of funds allocated. The aim of the article is to present the directions and the effects of the implementation of the cohesion policy in Poland and the Czech Republic with particular focus on the fi nancial perspective of 2007-2013. The results of the evaluation of programmes for the years 2007-2013 show that EU funds are mostly spent on transport infrastructure. However, the support of entrepreneurship and innovation and human capital should be an important objective in the current programming perspective in order to transform and modernise the structure of economies.

The level of socio-economic development of regions in Poland

“…Therefore, it is natural that within one country some regions are strongly developed while others poorly. However, with the use of EU funds, it is possible to support the least developed regions (Dziembała, 2016(Dziembała, , 2019. Throughout the years 1995-2015, Poland developed rapidly, achieving a growth rate greater than that of highly developed countries of the EU and OECD (Kotyński, 2017).…”

“…However, not all Polish regions experience the same socioeconomic development. The primary purpose of the EU Cohesion Policy is to reduce regional disparities (Dziembała, 2019). It should be mentioned here that this policy is meant to contribute to achieving the main goal, i.e.…”