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PURPOSE: The aim of the article is to present benefits and consequences of the use of EU funds by a local government in Poland. ; DESIGN/METHODOLOGY/APPROACH: This paper uses the regulatory analysis method and the statistical descriptive method. This article is the result of a broad research conducted in Poland in 2020. ; FINDINGS: Based on the results of empirical research, the article shows that one of the sources of financing a developmental activity of a local government are EU funds. Poland benefitted from these sources even before the pre-accession period, but the wide access to EU money occurred after 2004 when Poland joined the European Union. Then, it was possible to reach EU funds at the much larger scale to finance and co-finance programmes and projects aiming at the reduction of disparities between individual states and regions of the European Union. ; PRACTICAL IMPLICATIONS: Poland's accession into the European Union enabled the local government units to obtain financial resources for the developmental activity. The LGU obtained access to non-repayable sources of financing the EU programmes and projects. However, obtaining these resources requires incurring own expenditures i.e., co-financing the EU projects. In the meantime, the surpluses of the current incomes over the current expenditures are not able to secure the own contribution of the LGU. Thus, the local government generally has two options; it should either resign from applying for the EU funds or secure the contribution with their own external financial sources i.e., credits, loans, or issuance of securities. The latter solution relates to indebtedness of the local government. ; ORIGINALITY/VALUE: Considering that the inflow of the funds from the budget of the European Union is an extremely important and cheap source of financing development (which is likely to be limited for Poland in next perspectives), it seems that systematic targeted subsidies for investment should be planned in the state budget or low-interest loans for investments, ...

The authorities of local government, under the laws, including the Constitution, have the right to freely decide to meet the needs of the local and regional community. These powers are not unlimited. Legislative access to financial resources as well as the legal limits of local government debt, imposed by the law, force the local government to limit the discretionary powers in financing the tasks. There are, however, questions about the causes of the excessive indebtedness of local governments in Poland, as well as the actions leading to illegal debt and the transfer of debt to subsequent periods. They are due to the lack of local authorities' orderliness in this area or the limited access of Polish local government to financial resources. The issues contained in the study, due to the framework of the article, do not allow a detailed solution to the above issues. However, they signal the basic problems of local government in Poland, also verifying them empirically. ; Władze samorządu terytorialnego na mocy ustaw (w tym ustawy zasadniczej) otrzymały prawo do swobodnego decydowania o zaspokajaniu potrzeb wspólnoty lokalnej i regionalnej. Te uprawnienia nie są jednak nieograniczone. Określony przepisami prawa dostęp do środków finansowych, a także prawne granice zadłużania się samorządu terytorialnego, wymuszają na władzach JST ograniczanie swobody decyzyjnej w zakresie finansowania zadań. Pojawiają się pytania, w czym tkwią przyczyny nadmiernego zadłużania się JST w Polsce oraz dotyczące podejmowania działań prowadzących do nielegalnego zadłużania się i przerzucania długu na kolejne okresy. Czy wynikają one z braku zdyscyplinowania władz lokalnych w tym zakresie czy też z nazbyt ograniczonego dostępu polskiego samorządu terytorialnego do środków finansowych? Zagadnienia zawarte w opracowaniu, ze względu na ograniczone ramy artykułu, nie pozwalają na szczegółowe rozwiązanie powyższych kwestii, jednakże sygnalizują podstawowe problemy samorządu terytorialnego w Polsce, weryfikując je również empirycznie.