Warsaw Business Journal - Online Portal

SEARCH WBJ

Thursday, September 2nd, 2010

Today's weather

Hope for Poland's poorest regions

20th June 2005

Poland could benefit to the tune of EUR 900 (zł.3,635) million from a new EU fund to help areas suffering most from unemployment.

Deputy Marshall of Wielkopolskie, Kazimierz Kościelny (left), with Andrzej Zdebski of PAIiIZ

The fund was actually proposed by Polish representatives and has been approved by EU officials in Luxembourg. In order to qualify for grants, areas must meet two criteria: their GDP per capita must be lower than 40 percent of the EU average and the unemployment rate must come to 15 percent.

Currently five areas in Europe meet these requirements - and they are all in Poland.

The Lubelskie, Podlaskie, Świętokrzyskie, Podkarpackie and Warmińsko-Mazurskie voivodships could be the only potential beneficiaries, even after Romania and Bulgaria's accession to the European Union. But for the financial aid to become reality, EU leaders have to agree on an EU budget, and as WBJ went to press European officials were still locked in negotiations.

If EU leaders agree, Poland's poorest regions could be on the receiving end of a EUR 900 million injection between 2007 and 2013.

"The western part of Poland cumulates all the investments simply because of the higher quality of infrastructure. So a EUR 900 million investment into the poorer half would really be great news," said Andrzej Zdebski, president of the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ).

PAIiIZ has also recently signed a contract for the creation of a regional foreign investors assistance center in the Wielkopolskie voivodhip. This is the 16th such center and completes a nationwide network, which PAIiIZ hopes will boost Poland's investment competitiveness.

From Warsaw Business Journal by Katarzyna Dębek

WBJ blogs

Poland in the EU
Something smells here...
BY Christoph Klenner

Ample media attention is given these days to the envisaged gas deal between Poland and Russia's state-owned gas giant Gazprom, ... READ MORE

From the editor
The complexities of Poland's cultural conflict
BY Andrew Kureth

To hear the international media tell it, Poland's current row over the wooden cross in front of the Presidential Palace ... READ MORE

back

Go to top

Our partners

Republication or re-dissemination of the contents of this screen are expressly prohibited without the prior written consent of Valkea Media S.A.