Elżbieta Bieńkowska Minister of Regional Development, Poland
By: editor
Ceoworld.biz
The following Interview is brought to you by ceoworld.biz.
ceoworld.biz: Madame, first of all, a question from our readers who don’t know much about Poland. It is known, especially in Spain, that Poland will receive a lot of EU funds. And that you have lost some. This is the basic story. However, could you tell us , how the management of EU structural funds till 2013 looks like at the moment and what is the Ministry’s responsibility as far as planning and managing of this operation is concerned?
Elżbieta Bieńkowska: Poland entered the EU on the 1st May 2004. This is why we were participating in the previous budget only partially, so we are using the EU funds for 2004 or 2006. The 2008 was the last year of this shorter budget for us and I must say that this is a real success for Poland. By now, we have taken advantage of almost the whole amount of funds assigned for our country. Of course, there is a question of efficiency and you said that we would have to give some money back to the Commission. We don’t know whether in the coming years the audit procedures will not reveal any mistakes, however we have been using the money quite well so far. Now, starting from 2007-13, this is the first long budget for us and we are the country to get the highest amount of money in EU – 67 billion EUR for this 7-year -period. We can compare Poland to Spain, but not to e.g. Ireland, because of differences in scale and within the administrative division. Spanish regions are however much more autonomous than ours.
There are 16 self-governed regions in Poland. This division was created in 1999 and these regions have had much experience in using EU money. Another change applied in the last decade was the exclusion of an administrative body dealing with regional economy from the Ministry of Economy, by creating the Ministry of Regional Development. It is responsible for supporting the development of the country with use of EU funds, however also by domestic financial means.
Poland is nowadays in a very good situation. We have very good economic data, we observe a quite high economic growth, around 5%. The inflation is low. What is more, we manage to keep the budget deficit on a low level. The economic indicators are very good and the role of the Polish money, of our money, will be growing through the next years . In the previous programming period, we had some problems with collecting this 25 % of the money that has to be combined with the 75% of EU funds. Now I think the role of the Polish money will be growing and the number of the projects will increase because of the co-financing, although it’s eligible to get 85 % now. So the Ministry was responsible during last years for negotiating with the Commission and preparing the programs and now it is the managing authority for the EU funds. We are, in this European slang, responsible for the whole program: for using the money, for effeciency, everything. It is a very hard task, because we are a kind of an “umbrella Ministry” and different Ministries are implementing institutions. Besides, we have managing institutions on the regional level for the first time, so we have 5 national programs managed by my Ministry and 16 regional program versions for the first time. In the previous program we had only one operation program for the whole country.
ceoworld.biz: What were and are the priorities and strategy of the division of EU funds here in Poland?
Elżbieta Bieńkowska: At first sight it is very visible and easy, but when you go into detail, it’s much more difficult. But the first priority was, of course, infrastructure. When you look at the scale of Poland, compared to e.g Spain, you can see that the roads, railways, airports are the most important issue. But we also put much emphasis on education, innovation, IT and we are committed to dedicating 60% of the money for the Lisbon Strategy, i.e. for the activities dedicated to SMEs, to entrepreneurship and IT innovation research and technology – this kind of activities. There are two ways of using the money: innovation, very generally speaking and infrastructure.
The same division, but on a lower level, applies for the region, so regions in their own operation programs also dedicated 60% for the Lisbon Strategy. From the national programs there is money dedicated to bigger companies and on the regional level – to SMEs and micro companies. And the infrastructure, from the national point of view – highways and, on the regional level – local roads. What is more, the environmental issues, so the sewage system for example. There is a program called Infrastructure and Environment, which is responsible for these issues. We have allocated an amount of 28 billion EUR in this program. Sometimes it may seem too “heavy” since there are a few divisions: transport, environment, but also much smaller part dedicated to culture, health and research and technology. These are infrastructure measures.
ceoworld.biz: Well, it sounds like this Ministry is one of the most important. Is Poland prepared for the reception of these funds?
Elżbieta Bieńkowska: Quite well, but we still have many problems. The rules of the European Commission are changing from budget to budget and our local government institutions, as well as many of our beneficiaries are quite well prepared. They use the money quite well, but we still have some problems with, for example, environmental issues; the rules being tougher and tougher from the Brussels side. These are the most important problems that we have now. But I think that we are quite well prepared, compared to the previous budget. We are before the audits and maybe some money will have to be given back, but I don’t see any problems with our beneficiaries. The amount of the granted financial means, although it’s 67 billion EUR, is not enough for all our needs. So we use the money as much as we can.
ceoworld.biz: This is the lesson to learn from Poland, because some other countries couldn’t use that money at the beginning.
Elżbieta Bieńkowska: That’s why I’m saying we have to repeat this success story for European funds in Poland in these first three years.
ceoworld.biz: Another question: could you tell us briefly about cooperation with local government in the area of the regional development ?
Elżbieta Bieńkowska: For the first time we have 16 regional programs. They use the money on their own. We are not telling them what to do. But on the other hand, we have e.g. one national program dedicated to 5 Polish Eastern regions. If it goes well, it will be a very important part of the growth of those regions. We have a few projects, because we have the separate project in different regions for the investment areas. Nevertheless, we have a few common projects for all the five regions.
Among others, there is the IT infrastructure – very important for us, a huge project . We want to establish a wide system for all the five regions, so I hope this project will go well. We have common projects for tourism and economic promotion of all the regions and separate projects for economic areas and universities, like e.g. in Subcarpathia, because the aircraft companies are located there.
ceoworld.biz: Let’s move on to the next question. I found the National Development Strategy from 2007 till 2015 on the Ministry web site. It’s connected with the EU funds, but this is a Polish strategy. I guess it’s about the vision of the funds. Could you tell us very briefly about it?
Elżbieta Bieńkowska: We are now reconstructing it, because when you want to use the money, you have to prepare a special strategy or a special program for the Commission. We want to develop both the national and regional economy, so the strategy that we will create together with the regions will be combined with a national one. In the national strategy, which is much wider than in other European countries, there is much more stress on education, on 50+ strategy (bringing 50+ people back to the labor market ), which is very important now, because we have a very low birth rate. To sum up, we put stress on the environmental issues, education, the 50+ and issues of this sort.
ceoworld.biz: So this is combined with the EU funds to large extent, isn’t it?
Elżbieta Bieńkowska: This is the biggest source of money for us. But its meaning will decrease in time, with the development of the economy.
ceoworld.biz: Well, one of the last questions: what are the challenges that the Ministry faces nowadays?
Elżbieta Bieńkowska: We have to launch this new budget. It is a very tough issue, because we have some environmental problems, we have to change our legal acts connected with the “Nature 2000” program areas and with environmental impact assessment. The European Commission will not agree on any project until we change the law, so we are trying to change it as fast as possible. We have to start using the money because this year is the last year to finish the previous perspective. We thought that there wouldn’t be a huge amount of money to spend but the N+3 rule works till 2010 and it’s only two years left. So this is our biggest problem.
ceoworld.biz: I think all the countries had a similar problem.
Elżbieta Bieńkowska: Yes, it’s a similar problem. I’m still saying that we could use the money as fast as the European Commission wants us to, but we have to be very careful about the efficiency in doing it. If we wait till 2010 and then spend the money, then in the next two years the Commission will come and say: give it back. We are not very nervous this year, but the next one will be crucial. The problems are always the same. In these small countries like Slovakia, in big countries like Spain and Poland – this is the same problem.
ceoworld.biz: My last question, our readers of the CEOWORLD Magazine are basically from US and Europe. What would you say, why the investors should come and invest in Poland?
Elżbieta Bieńkowska: Because it’s a huge market with 40 million consumers and quite a good infrastructure. Of course, we still have a lot to do, comparing to Spain, for instance, but we are using the European money to a very large extent. What is more, our labor force is well prepared. We have really very good schools, the education in Poland is on a high European level. We have a very efficient labor force, a very specialized one.
In Silesia we have highly qualified technical employees and people who graduated from the technical universities. Besides, investors should come because of this economic data we were discussing. Poland is now one of the most rapidly growing economies in Europe and it’s a fact. For the time being, we are one of the best, most stable economies in the European Union.
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Contact details:
Ministry of Regional Development |
Thank you very much for the interview.
