Suchergebnisse

At the end of the 1990s, the challenges of globalization and decreasing competitiveness of the EU economy led to the implementation of a new action plan known as the Lisbon Strategy. It was aimed at improving the position of the European Union in the global economy - especially with respect to the United States. Innovations, competitiveness, dynamic knowledge-based economy, greater employment, sustainable economic growth became the main objectives of the plan. The Lisbon Strategy was modified in 2005. Nowadays it is followed by Europe 2020 - the main strategy of the EU. In order to achieve the goals of the Lisbon Strategy the European Union decided to put into force so called "earmarking" which meant dedicating Cohesion Policy funds to strengthen- among others- competitiveness, research and development activities, human capital and energy efficiency. Earmarking has created the criteria of evaluating the pro - Lisbon expenditures within the operational programmes. The main aim of this paper is to present the results of the analysis of Lisbon - oriented expenditures within the Regional Operational Programme 2007-2013 (WROP) for the Wielkopolska region in Poland. It is especially of great importance since Poland has become the largest national beneficiary of EU Cohesion Policy expenditure within the Financial Framework 2007-2013 which has created a great opportunity for the Polish regions to accelerate and improve the long-term quality of their socio-economic development. This paper will present the results of the analysis of compliance of approximately 1800 projects within WROP with the objectives of the Lisbon Strategy. Among the 33 intervention categories under the WROP, 16 were identified as those belonging to earmarking categories. The remaining 17 intervention categories were analyzed in detail in order to estimate the degree of their impact on the implementation of the Lisbon Strategy goals. The preliminary results indicate that the part of non-earmarking expenditure within WROP significantly pursues the goals of the Lisbon Strategy. It gives rise to a discussion on the rigidity of allocations of the EU funds. The conclusions might make a contribution to the debate regarding the rules of funds allocation within the Cohesion Policy in the new Financial Framework 2014-2020.

Since Poland has benefited from cohesion policy since accession to the EU in 2004, and is currently the largest national beneficiary of EU cohesion policy expenditure in the financial perspective 2007-2013, analysis of the impact of the EU funds in this country seems to be an important part of the overall evaluation of this policy. The outcome is especially interesting at the beginning of the debate on the future of EU cohesion policy the results of which will certainly have an effect on the development of many regions in the EU. In our analysis we concentrate on the three Polish NUTS-2 regions: Mazowieckie- capital region with the overwhelming economic supremacy, Dolnośląskie- one of the leading Polish regions, Świętokrzyskie - representative of the regions lagging behind the Poland's average in terms of socio-economic development. The main aim of this paper is not simply to compare and contrast the impacts of EU cohesion policy on the above mentioned regions, but also to confront them with the theoretical expectations. The analysis is carried out using such macroeconomic indicators as GDP per capita, employment, labour productivity and it focuses on the period 2004-2020 in order to capture both short- and long-term effects of the EU intervention. Our research draws on the regional HERMIN macroeconomic models of Mazowieckie (HPL5MZ), Dolnośląskie (HPL5DL) and Świętokrzyskie (HPL5SW) which are regionalised versions of the Polish national HERMIN macroeconomic model (HPL5)- part of the Cohesion System of HERMIN Models (CSHM) used by the European Commission. The results of our analysis point to the role of EU cohesion policy in the process of socio-economic convergence both at the national and European level. However, they are presented from a perspective of the three Polish regions characterized by the different levels of socio-economic development in order to show how EU funds affect economic leaders and outliers of the country. On the basis of the conducted analysis several conclusions are drawn with regard to macroeconomic modelling at the regional level which might be used to improve robustness and credibility of the evaluation of EU cohesion policy.