The article provides the analysis of bottlenecks related to public private partnerships (PPP), and the methods of avoiding them. The study is based on the history of Private Finance Initiative (PFI) in Great Britain, and the changes introduced to this programme in the last years. It is shown, that there are similarities between PPP in today’s Poland and PFI in the UK at the beginning of 90’s. British experience can be helpful in creating better environment for PPP, to avoid (or at least minimize) the potential threats.
The article deals with the evolution of the regional policy in the UK whose traditions in this respect are the richest among West European countries. Its genesis is linked with attempts to reduce unemployment in industrialised regions. It is commonly agreed that state interventionism in regional development began with the publication of the Special Areas Development and Improvement Act of 1934 which covered Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland, and northern England. The article focuses on the assumptions behind the regional policy, its objectives, scope, instruments used, and institutions responsible for its implementation indicating changes made by subsequent Conservative and Labour governments. While the former restricted the scope and volume of support in aid of assisted areas, the latter did the opposite. The regional policy defined and modified by the European Community plays a significant role in determining its shape as much as deregulation, reinforcement of the regional tier itself, predominance of social matters over economic ones as well affective and selective nature of support.
The quality of the delivery system along with theoretical underpinnings, development strategy and country`s institutional system has decisive influence on EU regional policy implementation. Analysis of the management system of the Integrated Regional Development Programme shows that there is more weak than strong points. Main weaknesses can be described as: not transparent, politically sensitive project selection and time consuming procedures, unclear allocation of responsibility, high costs imposed on beneficiaries, low managerial skills, and, finally, conflicting solutions with existing legal distribution of powers between regional government and regional representative of the central government. Implementation effects of 2004-2005 confirm that delivery mechanism fails to meet expectations.
Article analyses draft version of the National Development Strategy 2007–2015 adopted by the GoP in June 2006. This is the most important planning document. Its implementation may to a large extent influence competitive position of Poland within a decade. Analysis of presented diagnosis, objectives and priorities and outlined delivery mechanism leads to a conclusion that it is modern and interesting strategy, however not ambitious enough to ensure that Polish economy takes high place among other EU countries.
The paper discusses urban renewal projects implemented in Polish cities in the framework of Cohesion Policy 2004?2006. Renewal projects constituted only a small portion of the intervention under the Cohesion Policy programmes in cities. Relatively small outlays and a small number of projects resulted in a clear diffusion of the intervention, which undoubtedly affected the scale of results. Most undertakings classified as renewal projects were not comprehensive, i.e. they did not consist in restructuring of spatial, social and economic structures, but were rather repair and modernization investments. The general influence of the projects classified as renewal projects at the domestic level was small, even though most individual projects had a definitely positive impact on their direct surroundings or even the whole city (especially the projects concerning larger public spaces).
Inter-municipal cooperation is a specific phenomenon in local public administration across the world. It is a concept that has been applied globally, particularly in countries with more fragmented local government. Often its implementation helps to solve problems or challenges associated with the existence of fragmented public administration in the delivery of public services. From the existing investigations dedicated to this specific issue carried out in the Czech Republic, it appears that this model of local public administration is very often mentioned in this country; however, its real use in the territory by public administration even after a long period of its existence in this country still has a great potential for development and use even in comparison with how it is abroad. The aim of this article is to identify and characterise the motivation and willingness of municipalities in the country to cooperate in order to meet the current conditions.
The article presents a model of functional-spatial structure in the strategy of supra-local development, which is an attempt to translate the assumptions of the new planning paradigm, referred to in the world literature as strategic spatial planning, into Polish ground. In this regard, the new legal regulations set forth in the Act of July 15, 2020 on amending the Act on the principles of development policy and certain other acts were used, which, due to their high generality, allowed the authors’ approach to their interpretation and implementation. The paper presents the various dimensions of integration of strategic and spatial planning undertaken in the Polish legal system over the years up to the present day. In addition, the role of supra-local development strategies in integrated development planning in Poland is defined, and different types of functional areas are described, which are the starting point for differentiating the scope of the functional-spatial structure model. Then the description of the most important elements of the model was deepened, and other elements of the spatial dimension in the new supra-local development strategies were presented. The added value of integrating the spheres of strategic and spatial planning was pointed out, which is important for improving their effectiveness and efficiency, as well as for increasing public acceptance of the measures taken.
The aim of the work was to analyse the essence of recreational resources as a component of ecosystem services for the planning and development of recreation within the protected areas of Ukraine. This study highlights the features and essence of the ecosystem services concept. The classification, characteristics and possibilities of cultural ecosystem services usage of protected areas are assessed, and the location and importance of recreational services are emphasized. Theoretical and methodological approaches to the recreational ecosystem services assessment of protected areas were performed using GIS tools. The negative consequences of the Russian Federation military aggression on the protected areas of Ukraine and the ecosystem services decline are considered. The main advantages and obstacles of implementing the ecosystem services concept for planning the recreation development of the Ukrainian nature reserve fund are discussed.
The article describes the forecasts for the 2004-2006 National Development Plan implementation on the performance of Poland`s economy up to 2010. The estimations are based on the Polish version of HERMIN model. Several development paths for Poland are predicted upon varying assumptions on the ability to absorb the EU assistance, and varying efficiency of use of those funds. In general, it is demonstrated that Poland`s accession to EU will bring a significant economic improvement by increasing GDP growth rate and depressing unemployment rate.
In recent years, the largest Polish cities have experienced intensive suburbanization processes. People migrate to suburban communes and hitherto undeveloped areas change their function towards single- or multi-family residential neighbourhoods. Spontaneous and dispersed suburbanization processes (urban sprawl) have many negative consequences that might become a serious problem, not only for the inhabitants but also for the local authorities in the suburban areas. The article presents the results of the evaluation of the role of Cohesion Policy projects in counteracting negative effects of suburbanization processes in potential suburban zones of the largest Polish cities. The results of the evaluation indicate that in suburban areas there is a major focus on meeting the current needs of residents, whereas strategic prevention of negative effects of suburbanization processes is neglected.
This paper includes the general overview of the architectural and urban order issue in respect to Polish space. It focuses both on the problems of large cities as the peripheral and rural areas. Also the problems of rural areas losing their traditional character are discussed. Special attention was paid to the historical reasons staying behind the urbanization processes and their influence on the current situation. In this respect both the diagnosis of the current situation as well as the proposal for building the complex upgrade strategy were presented. Also the set of available implementation instruments were presented as a part of this proposal. Finally, the concept of urban regeneration was discussed. This concept can become the key element in the process of upgrading the condition of the Polish space. As a summary, a set of conclusions concerning the possible actions leading to desired change in the spatial order was presented.
New Public Management – inspired reforms have influenced implementation of management principles in local government, the marketisation and outsourcing. These reforms were mostly visible in the United Kingdom but appear also in other European countries, for example: Ireland, Sweden, Germany, the least in France (among described in this article). There is a risk that NPM-led reforms may come to lose sight of the underlying social purpose of public services. NPM has not became a new, universal model of public sector management. The debate about public service reform has moved (particularly in UK) beyond the concerns of NPM to an emerging concept of networked community governance.
The aim of this paper was to analyse the role of borders and types of borderlands in cross-border cooperation. Almost 600 projects from seven Interreg IIIA Programmes, in which Polish border regions participated in the years 2004–2006, were examined. The authors paid special attention to the question whether the structure of co-operation fields is uniform or diversified along all borders. Although many similarities did exist, there were also important differences. It turned out that the common legal framework of Interreg Programmes did not guarantee exactly the same realisation of trans-border cooperation. The so called ‘integrating factor’ also played an important role. The type of border and neighbouring country, as well as different local conditions also had an impact on the programmes’ implementation. Therefore, the effectiveness of trans-border programmes depends on their adjustment to specific regional conditions.
The main purpose of this article is the analysis of differences in dynamics and directions of development policy between Eastern Poland and the rest of the country. The authors analyze the structure and value of investments supported by EU structural funds in the years 2004–2006. The results obtained allow to identify some regularities characteristic for this region, namely high territorial and capital dispersion of the investments and a lower general financial value of all EU-supported projects. The tendencies may have a negative impact on the expected results of the cohesion policy. There is no significant qualitative change in development policy in Easter Poland. Most of the investment projects entrench the existing socio-economic structures.
The objective of this paper is to assess the advance of planning works in the area of the Podlaskie Voivodeship. The authors determined the degree to which districts were covered by local land development plans at the end of 2007. The assessment was done on the basis of plans which were carried out and those that still await implementation. In the assessment, we used one essential indicator of the demanded covering, which accounted for use intensity and the amount of existing functions.
The paper shows the basic problems of implementation of the cross-sector cooperation, in the frame of area-based partnerships, for specified rural areas in years 2001-2004 in Poland. In this period partnerships were created with international sources support and with appreciable participation of non-government organisations. The main obstacles to their actions were: the insufficient financial resources, the lack of legal form of self-governments, NGOs and entrepreneurships cooperation with equal rights, tendencies for leaders` domination in group`s actions, weak organisational structures and the lack of long-term strategies. The first effects of cooperation are little; they deal with social affairs and tourist promotion, but they show the positive role of such type coalitions in local development.
The main objective of the study was to identify regularities related to selected aspects of stability of cross-border cooperation on the example of Polish borderlands. The basis for the analysis was a comprehensive study of cross--border cooperation projects Interreg, ETC, ENPI, ENPI implemented in 2007–2013 and 2014–2020. The study covered a total of about 1500 projects in terms of stability of the subject of cooperation and stability of spatial structures of cooperation. The analysis allowed to find partial stability in relation to selected thematic categories of implemented projects and spatial stability in terms of distribution of cooperation beneficiaries by locality.
The aim of the paper is to present the impact of ICT on the spatial behaviour of the main actors (households, enterprises, public administration) that constitute the regional economic system. The results are based on the regional case study developed within the ESPON 1.2.3 project. The research has been conducted in 2006 in the Podlaskie Voivodship – an example of peripheral Polish region. In particular the analysis covers the range and effects of new technologies implementation both in private and public sectors.
The article describes the important problem of increasing regional competitiveness through the international (interregional and cross-border) cooperation. Activities supporting the competitiveness of companies and whole regions are described in the article using the examples of transregional projects carried out by different partners dealing with logistics. The first project ECO4LOG carried out in the framework of interregional cooperation programme INTERREG III C promotes the usage of the intermodal infrastructure located in the transport corridor along Polish and German border and further through Austria, Hungary and Slovenia to the Adriatic sea. One of the main tasks of this project is the improvement of cross-border cooperation in goods transport among bodies which are interested in such cooperation (also public authorities). Another important target of ECO4LOG is the increase of effectiveness of the existing transport network through the improvement of information flows. The second project has the acronym CORELOG and is carried out in the framework of INTERREG III B CADSES. Its target is the development of logistics solutions favourable for enterprises, logistics operators and the whole region – propagating co-ordination of activities of different organisations, feasibility studies of developed co-operation models. Analysis and evaluation of the most important factors influencing the strategies of supply chain management and evaluation of activities carried out by administrations (of the national, regional and local level) affecting transport development and economic growth in the region will provide background for the implementation phase. Several pilot actions will test the ideas for coordinated regional logistics development.
The main purpose of this paper is to present selected methods of spatial-economic research with a special focus on Michalski`s method. The enlargement of the European Union by new countries is an important opportunity to carry out comparative studies, making it possible to analyse and assess the competitiveness of regions as well as spatial and regional diversity of growth centres. The presented visualisation methods are the authors` modest contribution to literature on this subject. This contribution includes collecting domestic methods, their implementation in research and some modifications. The purpose of these methods was to examine spatial processes (in such areas as: economy, demography, agriculture, quality of life or building) in different spatial sections, in the years 1990–1992. There are many methods of examining similarity (dissimilarity) of regional structures. All of them fundamentally depend on the concept of structure. In this paper, two different approaches of this concept and the relevant measures shall be presented. Furthermore, various methods of visualisation of the obtained measures shall be presented.
The main question of this paper is a problem of importance of the National Strategy of Regional Development (NSRD), as a leading instrument for strategic planning of regional policy in Poland. I present the main characteristic of recent NSRD arranged for period 2001–2006. My basic interest is focused on structure of this document, its main priorities and basic implementation instruments. Particularly important is the analysis of effectiveness of the main NSRD priorities in practice. It is crucial problem, especially for Polish central-government regional policy which was implemented basically by voivodship contracts. My research proves that effectiveness of the NSRD implementation by the voivodship contracts was low. Recommendation for future Polish government regional policy is given.
The aim of this paper is twofold: to demonstrate development challenges of large Polish cities and to assess the extent to which Cohesion Policy in the 2004?2006 programming addresses these issues. The analysis covers different aspects of EU intervention: sums assigned for particular categories, types of beneficiaries as well as types of large cities. The results allow us to formulate the following observations. The thematic structure of the intervention only partially addresses challenges related to contemporary informational economy, which is due to the cities’ relatively low support for innovativeness and their metropolitan functions. In the analyzed period, the bulk of EU Cohesion Policy funds was devoted to the development of basic technical infrastructure (transport and water management), which was the result of huge underdevelopment in these fields in former years. However, EU intervention had some successes: thematic fields were well adapted to types of cities. Furthermore, most funding was allocated to the largest cities because of the strong involvement of their authorities in EU funds projects, while in smaller cities a significant share of the funds was given to large industrial plants.
The aim of this paper is to analyze the effectiveness of raising and spending EU funds by the local government in Lublin in the first period of the Polish accession (2004–2006). The criteria of effectiveness we use are: increase of city competitiveness (attractiveness) and creating conditions for diffusion of development processes into the region. Compared to other Polish cities, Lublin had trouble raising EU funds. Besides, there was no innovative strategic vision of their spending. As a result, EU Cohesion Policy improved Lublin’s competitiveness and contributed to the development of the relations between the city and its region only to a small extent.
Current glocalisation processes require the identification of priority areas for Ukraine’s further integration into the international economy. The right choice of direction, tools and forms of implementation allows the government to determine, justify and implement a competitive strategy for the country. The study aimed to determine the relationship between international economic integration and Ukraine’s global competitive power. Identifying Ukraine’s sectoral comparative advantages in trade with the EU and evaluating the index of the regional orientation of Ukraine for specific groups of goods and services made it possible to define the effects of economic collaboration with the European region. The assessment of the complementarity index of Ukrainian–European trade relations revealed that Ukraine and the European Union are main trading partners. Furthermore, the analysis of the mechanism of the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the European Union proved that the agreement actively contributes to the growth of Ukraine’s global competitive power. Comparative analysis in historical retrospect revealed priority areas for improving the integration processes which help to form the main competitive advantages of the country.
There are three Social Economy Support Centres (OWES) operating in the Łódzkie region. The basic role of such centres is to provide advisory services to the existing social economy entities and train people interested in setting up a social enterprise. The aim of the article is to present the activities of social economy support centres aimed at supporting social enterprises and promoting the development of social economy in the Łódzkie region. Evaluation of their activities and conclusions from this analysis may be of practical importance for the development of social economy. The research material is based on the desk research for the projects: “OWES – support to social economy”, “Social Economy Support Centre in Łódź”, “Social Economy Support Centres KLUCZ”, “OWES – development of social economy” implemented in 2016–2017, research of the Regional Centre for Social Assistance in Łódź and CATI interviews conducted with coordinators of social economy support centres operating in the Łódzkie region.
The article shows how the Four Capitals Model was applied to evaluate the region development strategy document and its implementation in terms of sustainable development. Firstly, it defines these types of capitals that could be used to analyse the sustainability of regional development. Then the authors describe the results of the exercise carried out together with representatives of the regional authorities, intended to assess the impact of the strategy implementation in the context of the four capitals. The results were confronted with the opinions of local governments and SME owners. This helped to identify the weaknesses of the strategy and potential trade-offs between different types of capital. Finally, the recommendations related to the updating of the strategy were formulated.
Article assesses the administrative capacity of the regional institutions in Poland for implementation of the Integrated Regional Development Operational Programme 2004-2006. Organizational works has been delayed, mainly because of slowing down of the negotiation between Poland and European Commission, lack of required legislative framework and postponement of decisions on central government level. Author presents recommendations for improvement of pace and quality of administrative works in Polish regions. The main conclusion is also importance for general rebuilding of administrative regional framework for future implementation of European funds after 2006. The basic directions for this reform are recommended.
Update from 25/07/2024: Parts of this article in the form of literal quotes without providing the source were used in a subsequent article by the same author entitled "Implementation of the partnership principle in the process of implementing regional operational programs in Poland" published in "Opinie i Komentarze Fundacji Rozwoju Demokracji Lokalnej" 3/2023.
The aim of the paper is to examine the level of application of the partnership rule in the process of implementing regional operational programmes (ROP) in Poland in 2014–2019. It has been assumed that the Monitoring Committees (MC) operate as the institutional manifestation of the partnership principle. The scope of comparative analysis includes practical aspects of the functioning of MCs within ROPs in three voivodships: Kujawsko-Pomorskie, Lubuskie and Świętokrzyskie. The analysis focused on five institutional factors: number of Committee meetings in the financial perspective 2014–2020, number of circular voting events, percentage of socio-economic partners in the total number of Committee members, number of working groups within the MCs, as well as the number of meetings of working groups. The research hypothesis adopted in this article assumes that the regulatory activities expressed in the preparation of guidelines for the application of the partnership principle under the regional operational programs in the 2014–2020 financial perspective turned out to be insufficient for disseminating developed partnerships under ROPs.
The article is devoted to the reform of local self-government and territorial organisation of power in Ukraine, which took place in 2014–2020, combining three important tasks: improving the system of public authority, strengthening local self-government, and streamlining the administrative-territorial system in the state. The analysis conducted in the study concerns: the main problems to be addressed by the relevant reform; the chronology of the adoption of key regulations and their role in this process; the results of the amalgamation of territorial communities; and the communities’ ability to ensure the sustainable development of territories. As a result, the article highlights the stages of the implementation of the reform of local self-government and territorial organisation of power in Ukraine, as well as outlines several unresolved issues in this area.
Evaluation is an important element of the public policy cycle, providing information for improving the effectiveness of implemented policies and designing future ones. In Poland, the need for the diffusion of this practice from the field of structural funds to other public policy fields has been discussed for at least 15 years. Although one such obvious direction of diffusion is local government, very little is known about evaluation at this level, and in studies summarising the general evaluation practice in Poland, this strand is omitted. The aim of this study was to assess the extent and characteristics of evaluation practices in the period 2010–2021 in cities with county [Pol. powiat] status. The analysis was based on the information on evaluation studies provided by city halls. Out of the 55 cities that were included in the analysis, 62% carried out evaluations and they completed a total of 469 studies. A systematic increase in the number of studies and the number of cities carrying them out was also observed. The dominant thematic areas were civic budgeting, social policy, and development strategy. The shares of studies carried out internally and those commissioned from external companies turned out to be similar. In contrast, studies of intervention implementation processes dominate over evaluations of intervention effects. This research can serve as a starting point for further, more detailed analyses of the organisation of the evaluation process and its use in local government.
This article aims to explore residents’ preferences and perceptions of the actual styles of local political leadership in Poland over the past decades. In particular, it analyses the size of the gap between preferred and perceived leadership styles. The paper uses a classification developed by Peter John and Alistair Cole distinguishing city boss, visionary, care-taker, and consensus facilitator styles. The primary empirical material comes from a nationwide survey of residents conducted in December 2022 and surveys in a few case study cities conducted in the spring and summer of 2023. In addition, previously published results from surveys conducted using similar methods are used. The results indicate a growing preference for consensus facilitator style, assuming an inclusive style for both policy preparation and policy implementation. The size of the ‘expectations gap’ is explained by the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents (age, education) and the size of the city. Younger and better educated respondents have a particularly high expectation that mayors should involve different stakeholders in the preparation and implementation of local policies, while at the same time being more critical in assessing the actual behaviour of local authorities.
The aim of the study is to examine how and at what stage in the evolution of the cohesion policy rural areas have been incorporated, thus gaining space for empowerment. The role of the territorial instrument, CLLD, will also be considered. The research problem was verified through a review of literature and EU legislative documents as well as empirical material from two evaluation projects. It was found out that the extension of the cohesion policy to include the objective of territorial cohesion was of particular importance for rural areas. In the 2014–2020 financial perspective, due to the territorialisation of cohesion policy – previously perceived as mainly urban – rural areas were considered for participation. CLLD has been proven to strengthen the sense of empowerment of local communities.
This article reveals the geographical distribution, structures, and problematic aspects of business migration to the oblasts of the Carpathian region of Ukraine and abroad. In the context of the Russian–Ukrainian war, the article assesses the risks and threats that internal and international business migration pose to the Ukrainian economic system, economies of the Carpathian region, the internal consumer market, and business entities. Measures to mitigate the threats of business migration to the Carpathian region are offered. The implementation of certain measures will eliminate the identified threats to relocated businesses and minimise the risks to the social and economic development of the Carpathian region and Ukraine as a whole.
The ecological activity of municipalities can be a very important element increasing their attractiveness. Modern digital technologies offer intelligent solutions and help fulfil many economic and social demands related to environmental issues. The study primarily looked at the degree of activity of municipalities in the implementation of optional ecological projects and revealed a low level of participation of municipalities in cross-border projects. A questionnaire survey was designed as a universal tool for studying digital maturity in a cyclical, low-cost manner, which provides extensive information by verifying various areas of municipal activity and then formulating conclusions for climate and regional policies, etc. On the one hand, the study fostered the need to implement ecological projects, especially of a cross-border nature, and on the other hand, it disseminated knowledge and indicated various possible solutions.
European Union programs are a vital source of financial help in the field of employment increase. Such initiatives are available both in structural programs, Community Initiatives and Community Programs. A great number of them are designed for communities, which, as an independent beneficiary or a partner in a project, can influence the improvement of local and regional labour market situation. One of the essential factors which influence the commitment to the initiatives for employment increase is the way beneficiaries perceive their attractiveness. Therefore, in the article the author presented results of the research in which communities’ attitudes to each activity connected to a labour market, available in EU programs, had been analyzed and assessed. This allowed to determine the initiatives which are perceived as the most desirable and which, according to communities, can best contribute to decreasing of the unemployment rate, and the ones which are the least attractive in this respect. Another part of the above research is the analysis of communities’ expectations regarding creating new initiatives for employment increase, which are not available within the limits of the current programs. This scrutiny allowed to estimate more precisely to what extent current activities match communities requirements. These results made it possible to assess to what degree the presumable lack of desirable initiatives for employment increase constitutes a factor that limits the commitment to the implementation of the currently available initiatives
The Integrated Regional Operational Programme (IROP) management system in a weak manner prevents possibility of administrative and political corruption. Particularly susceptible to corruption are procedures of choosing projects and new public procurement system. We could list following reasons, why IROP management system is vulnerable to corruption: (1) system is very complicated, (2) division of competences between various public authorities is incorrect, as well as between politicians and civil servants, (3) some institutions are wrongly designed (particularly regional steering committees), (4) blur regulations, for instance not clearly supporting transparency of administrative procedures, (5) lack of special anti-corruption regulations, (6) Polish administrative and political culture. Decision makers preparing a new system for regional programs (2007–2013) should take into consideration conclusions of this paper and revise this system from the point of view of preventing corruption.
Structural funds – instruments of cohesion policy – are aimed to support local and regional development and to speed up regional convergence. For the last few years they have been the main source that enable realization of different activities and investments on local level in Poland. In the light of systematic extension of financial resources provided within structural funds effective absorption of those funds becomes a matter of great importance. Experience of previous implementation period gives some clues on the perspective of use of structural funds provided for Polish regions in 2007–2013 period. The results of previous research showed that effective absorption of pre-accession and structural funds depends on many both material and untouchable factors but the most important for effective absorption is adequate institutional system with procedures of programming, financial management, monitoring, evaluation etc. This paper presents the results of research conducted in 2008. The authors focused on three main areas: experience of 2004–06 period of implementation – identification of successes and barriers of structural funds implementation system, practical use of these experiences to improve institutional system for 2007–13 period and finally priorities of 16 Regional Operational Programmes realized in Polish voivodeships.
The article discusses the idea of co-production, understood as informed and intentional participation of citizens in the organisation and provision of public services in the context of the global ageing process, a phenomenon which necessitates actions aimed to secure the needs of older people. The basis for the empirical investigation was a study carried out under the aegis of a WHO agency, the Centre for Health Development in Kobe, Japan. It offers an analysis of the case studies of initiatives addressed to elderly people in the local communities of 10 selected developing countries (Chile, China, Iran, Libya, Russia, Serbia, Sri Lanka, Thailand, Ukraine, Vietnam). The key criterion in the selection of the analysed projects was direct involvement of institutional and non-institutional representatives of local communities in their implementation. As a participant (researcher) of this international survey, the author analyses the observable manifestations of silver co-production characterising the individual initiatives.
Poland as a rightful member of European Union has got a chance to participate in structural funds and Cohesion Fund as well. Taking into consideration the limited financial opportunities of territorial self-government units in projects co-financed by structural funds, presence of private sector means may be considered as a crucial factor. The scope and typology of public-private partnerships PPP have been presented in this study. The chances as well threats which may occur during the execution of investment ventures within the framework of public-private partnership have been presented there as well.
“Zombie developments”, i.e. the problem of unfinished development projects, is an unrecognised phenomenon in Poland. In the USA, research on the causes, consequences and actions aimed to reduce the nuisance has been conducted for years. Therefore, the aim of this article is to show, through case studies, that the problem of “zombie developments” also occurs in Poland, causing many negative consequences for various entities. At the same time, this study is intended to help identify the causes of this phenomenon in Poland.
The quality of the delivery system – along with theoretical underpinnings, development strategy and the country’s institutional system – has a decisive influence on EU regional policy implementation. An analysis of the management system of the Integrated Regional Development Programme (IROP) shows that there are definitely more weak than strong points. The main weaknesses include: strong centralisation and ‘red tape’, far exceeding the usual practices in the EU; not transparent, politically sensitive project selection and time-consuming procedures; unclear allocation of responsibility, high costs imposed on beneficiaries, low managerial skills, and, finally, conflicting solutions with existing legal distribution of powers between regional government and regional representative of the central government. Implementation effects of 2004–2005 confirm that the delivery mechanism fails to meet expectations.
The article considers the peculiarities of local government reform based on the examples of Ukraine, Poland, and Latvia. It is substantiated that the Ukrainian vector of European integration requires the implementation of the principles of deconcentration, decentralisation, and subsidiarity in the local governance systems. It is indicated that regional disproportions in the development of the territory of Ukraine, the inability to implement the reform on the ground in specific administrative-territorial units, the spread of corruption schemes – all these are the consequences of an ineffective model of local self-government and public administration of regional development, inherited from the Soviet system, which requires fundamental changes. Broad powers for sub-regional units characterise the Polish model of the administrative-territorial structure. However, this model is underpinned by a high level of political activity and community self-awareness. The Latvian experience of decentralisation of power emphasises the basic principle of success: the volunteer approach to the reform’s implementation. In conclusion, it is proved that for the successful implementation of the Ukrainian local self-government reform, the following factors are necessary: firstly, the victory of Ukrainian armed forces against the military aggression of Russia; secondly, the elaboration of a legal framework for the development of local self-government and the support of society; thirdly, qualified personnel capable of continuing the implementation of the local self-government reform.
The paper critically discusses several widespread views about regional development and how it can be stimulated by regional policy. It is argued that in the current development paradigm it is neither possible nor expedient to achieve regional convergence, which in effect would lead to a deep change in understanding the very assumptions of the EU Cohesion policy. It is indicated that external stimuli do not lead to an accelerated growth in lagging regions, which is especially true in the case of infrastructural projects, especially those which are related to incidental events, like expositions or sports championships. One of the most broadly used models for an ex ante evaluation – the HERMIN model – is also discussed.
The paper presents the principles regarding the protection and shaping of rural settlement landscape, drawn up on the basis of literature analyses. The authors confront the principles with the provisions of local planning documentation and the actual changes in the commune that have taken place since the plan was adopted. Finally, the authors determine the degree of implementation of the provisions. They identify some irregularities and shortcomings in the provisions and some differences between the provisions and actual spatial development. They also indicate the main directions of changes of local spatial policy.
The article presents possibilities of adapting the impact evaluation methodology to the evaluation of public intervention in road infrastructure. In the first part of the article the authors present the principles of the impact evaluation methodology, which serves to evaluate real effects of an intervention, as well as examples of evaluation projects prepared with the use of this method. The authors present their own empiric study, which was the first application of the methodology in the road infrastructure sector. The article concludes with a critical analysis of the method, especially concerning its reliability and potential usefulness in road infrastructure.
In this paper, we present the most important problems and development perspectives concerning the collection and analysis of data on Polish metropolises. The basic issues described in this context are: the definition of metropolis and functional city, sources of statistical information, methods of estimating missing data, and some persisting organizational and methodological problems. A special attention is paid to advantages and challenges of Poland’s participation in various international projects relating to regional statistics, such as URBAN AUDIT, EURAREA, etc. The former project provides many interesting propositions concerning assessment of living conditions of urban population and delimitation of metropolitan areas based mainly on a concept of the city’s scope of action. The latter is aimed at construction, development and research on the usefulness of theoretical tools of small area estimation. Moreover, we look at the potential of Polish regional statistics in terms of observation of metropolises and stimulation of their functioning, from the analytical point of view and in order to support decision-making at the local level.
The article is devoted to a critical discussion of several widely accepted principles of regional development and regional policies. It is argued that the in the current development paradigm it is impossible to achieve regional convergence, which should lead to a deep change in understanding the very assumptions of the Cohesion policy of the EU. It is indicated that external impulses do not lead to an accelerated growth in lagging regions, which is especially true in the case of infrastructural projects, especially those which are related to incidental events, like expositions or sport championships. One of the most broadly used model for an ex ante evaluation – the HERMIN model – is also discussed.
The study focuses on the mutual relations between the quality of government and the implementation of the EU Cohesion Policy in various regional contexts. The research shows quite significant differences in this respect between “convergence-oriented” regions and „competitiveness and employment-oriented” ones. The quality of government has a positive impact on the efficiency of spending of EU funds in both groups of regions, although the dependence is much stronger in the „convergence-oriented” regions. In turn, the scale of EU funds contributes to the improvement of the quality of government, but only in the „convergence-oriented” regions. In this group, changes in the quality of government took place immediately before and after accession to the EU, when the process of adapting the institutional system to the needs related to the implementation of Cohesion Policy occurred. Although the differences in the quality of government between the two groups of regions have decreased, the research shows that in the „convergence-oriented” regions, the potential causative power of EU funds was rather poorly used in this respect.
The article attempts to identify and analyze the actions undertaken in the cities of the Wielkopolska Voivodeship in the area of urban renewal in the 1999–2005 period as well as the direct and indirect effects of these actions. In order to reach this objective, we analyze the local renewal programmes as well as other strategic documents launched in the investigated cities. In addition, we employ the survey technique and conduct numerous in-depth interviews with the local actors of the renewal process in order to get better insights into the economic, societal and spatial context of the renewal process. As a result, we show that the actions undertaken by the cities of the Wielkopolska Voivodeship in the realm of urban renewal are hardly integrated (they are not comprehensive and do not complement each other in a given area) and dominated by infrastructural investments. In contrast, the economic and social projects remain rare and their consequences ambiguous. We also identify some unexpected, positive as well as negative, consequences of the renewal process, such as increasing engagement of local property owners, entrepreneurs and associations in the renewal actions as well as the problem of profiteering on the renewed areas.
In many European countries local governments, in particular on the municipal level, search for new solutions to improve the governing process. The aim of this paper is to present an innovative model, based on the idea of New Public Governance management, which operates in the city of Tampere, situated in southern Finland. Introduced in 2007, the model is based on three main pillars – strong leadership, effective and responsible service provision, and citizen involvement in the decision-making process. The paper describes each of these elements and indicates its practical advantages and disadvantages. The analysis has been conducted on the basis of official city documents and interviews conducted with experts in Finnish local government as well as leading local politicians from Tampere. In conclusion, it is pointed out that although the Tampere model should certainly be labelled as innovative, the solutions adopted generate some difficulties. These include tensions between politicians and administrators as well as problems related to the coordination of city services and the attitude of politicians and administrators towards citizen participation.
The article analyzes decision-making councils of Local Action Groups operating in Axis 4 LEADER Rural Development Programme in three Polish regions which were described in the literature as differing significantly in terms of their historical and cultural backgrounds. According to the concept of governance, implemented in programmes such as LEADER, the influence of representatives of various sectors of the economy on local decisions should be balanced and, in accordance with the rules of the support programme, no more than 50% of council members should represent the public sector. This provision, included in formal documents of Local Action Groups, is designed to ensure that non-public sectors do have some impact on council decisions. However, in the three studied regions, the real participation of mayors, officials and executives of the public sector was from 15 to 21% higher than in the official data, and in about one-third of the surveyed organizations it exceeded 50%, which gave the public sector representatives the dominant role in decision-making and selection of eligible projects. This practice was very similar in the studied regions, and is discussed in the context of the concept of governance, as an example of tokenism.
The aim of this paper is to identify the character of transborder cooperation on the local level in the Polish-Czech borderland with a special focus on the transborder relations network. To this end, the author analyzes cooperation co-financed under Poland-Czech Republic Cross-Border Cooperation Programme 2007–2013 in the framework of ETC and examines all realized Project and all beneficiaries, i.e. 250 projects and 350 Polish and Czech institutions. Due to the mountainous character of the Polish-Czech borderland, special attention is paid to projects concerning tourism. The research reveals that the cooperation network is poorly developed. However, the most import ant nodes in this network are clearly visible and they are the most active institutions that shape the relations of transborder cooperation.
The article discusses the results of empirical research conducted in ca 50 municipalities located in four Polish regions. The authors conduct desk research of official documents, questionnaires and in-depth interviews with local government staff and politicians, and present differences and similarities in opinions on various Operational Programmes. The article discusses all stages of applying for EU grants: from selection of an Operational Porgramme to the final decision of the Managing Authority on the list of selected projects. It refers to issues arising from formal procedures, the passionate character of the competition for funds in individual Operating Programmes, as well as informal mechanisms of influence on the outcome of the selection processes. Unlike earlier research, the article discusses the changes in the Programmes implemented within the 2004-2006 and 2007-2013 perspectives.
One of the elements of the implementation of the European Union Strategy for the Baltic Sea Region is completion of the flagship projects. The article presents the results of a study carried out with the participation of the coordinators of the flagship project partners in the Baltic Sea region. The study of the flagship projects was aimed at analysing the implementation of the EUSBSR through these projects and at complementing the quantitative results. As a result of the research, specific results and recommendations for actors affecting the operation of the EUSBSR are presented in the conclusions.
The main objective of this paper is to analyze the reasons of development of the Integrated Territorial Investments in the new 2014-2020 period in the context of EU reforms, and to describe the creation process and the threats this experimental approach may encounter in Poland. The Author’s main thesis is that the experimental ITI concept causes additional conflicts between management authorities and beneficiaries who are used to the fact that declared and implemented intervention aims are different. The Author also assumes that there exist important factors that could potentially hinder the radical reforms and re-establish the status quo (or “domesticate” the policy). The main methods (desk research and involvement in preparatory works as a Ministry expert) determine the structure of the sources used. The paper offers some conclusions.
The paper discusses the subject of intersectoral cooperation in sustainable development projects in order to identify social value created by the cooperating partners. There were several questions posed to find out what kind of social value is created in sustainable development projects undertaken by stakeholders from different sectors, and what is the role of such intersectoral cooperation in the process of creating social value. The empirical part of the work presents case studies from selected projects. As the results demonstrate, the use of mutual potentials allows for a more effective creation and use of value by a wider circle of stakeholders. A higher quality of services is achieved and, what is more, a wider range of social value is created. Social value in the local cooperation model is universal in terms of implementation, creation and use for various crosssectoral sustainable development projects.
This paper examines the impact of the implementation of participatory budget (PB) projects on the development and creation of public spaces in the city. The first part of the paper describes the main assumptions and models of participatory budgeting as well as the legal basis and rules of PB implementation and financing in Poland. In the second part, those are confronted with the implementation of PB (civic and green) in Lublin in 2015-2019. In the third one, detailed analysis of the PB rounds 2015-2017 show that 86% of investment projects submitted and 87% of projects selected for implementation were directly associated with activities in public space. Furthermore, the spatial distribution and thematic scope of those investments in 27 districts of Lublin in relation to 10 categories selected by the authors as well as the motivation and activity of residents of individual districts in applying for projects were presented. The fourth part shows the changes in Lublin’s public spaces caused by the implementation of PB projects and Lublin’s experience in relation to other cities in Poland. The summary includes recommendations on how to effectively implement BP to create a high quality public space in cities. Three aspects are distinguished: 1) organizational and procedural; 2) mobilisation of the stakeholders and 3) implementation of projects.
The paper summarizes the activities, carried out in Poland in the period 2011–2016, which led to the delimitation of Functional Urban Areas of Voivodeship Centres (FUA VC) in the scope of the implementation of Integrated Territorial Investments (ITI). The first part of the paper presents the principles of implementing ITI in Poland, and the results of the delimitation of FUA VC proposed by the central authorities. In the second part, they are confronted with the results of studies conducted in all Polish regions. This makes it possible to assess their mutual relations, and to observe five variants of works related to the delimitation of FUA VC for the implementation of ITI, namely I. Ministerial, II. Cooperation, III. Strategic Planning, IV. Expert, and V. Interim.
The article discusses political leadership in local government. Change from traditional local government to local governance requires also institutional changes and new roles played by local leaders. The notion of political leader is limited to persons having democratic legitimacy for their role played in local politics. It excludes people, who might be influential but remain outside formal democratic institutions of local government. The article distinguishes between type (which depends on formal institutional settings) and style (more dependent on personal characteristics) of leadership. The article discusses selected theoretical concepts of type and style of leadership and tries to refer them to Polish local governments. Recent Polish reforms have brought a change from the type which was close to a collective model to one closer to a strong mayor form. Analysis of four initiative in 2 Polish cities (Poznan and Ostrow Wielkopolski) allows to formulate some conclusions on citizens’ perception of actual styles of local political leadership. The largest proportion of citizens in analysed cities prefers a style which is close to consensus facilitator. But in a real behaviour of leaders, citizens see more of city boss style, which might be characterized by the implementation of an own vision with internal resources existing within local government structures. Comparison of citizens’ preferences with the perception of actual behaviour of leaders allows to compute an Expectation Gap Index. The gap is usually quite narrow in initiatives focused on the construction of broad development programmes, but it becomes wider if we turn to more concretely focused projects.
For many years, public participation has been a very popular subject of research and of interest for practitioners. Little attention has been devoted, however, to the issues of formal and organizational tools of managing this process. The paper contains the results of research aimed at creating the concept of participation infrastructure and at measuring its application in 17 Polish cities. For these purposes, the authors develop their own method of examining the practical use of participation tools. Typologies of participation tools are created and cities are classified according to their advancement, basing on the results of the research. The most popular and most willingly used tools are indicated, together with the levels of their implementation.
The article discusses the involvement of the US federal government in the policy of urban development in the years 1965-2012. The implementation paradox, understood as a limited ability to achieve national policy objectives as a result of the empowerment of potential adversaries, and the changing views of the successive presidents on federalism were considered crucial in explaining the discussed issue. The following categories have been used: federalism, orientation and instruments of development, and financial outlays for development. Orientation and instruments of development have been presented on the basis of selected federal programmes addressed to cities, and outlays – based on federal budgets. Three generations of public policy implementation theories constitute the theoretical framework of the study. In conclusion, the author points to the withdrawal of the federal government and the growing importance of state authorities in urban development policy.
The purpose of this study is to identify the determinants of innovation of enterprises in the Regional Innovation System context. We analyse factors that determine regional innovation in a less developed region, taking the Podkarpackie region in Poland as our empirical counterpart. We examine how the EU economic policy instruments influence the innovation of enterprises within the context of the Regional Innovation Systems. We propose a model for the implementation of innovations and test our hypotheses based on the data drawn from the period of 2011–2014. The paper provides insights on a rather successful story from Poland. We posit that enterprises use only specific public policy instruments and that companies’ demand for innovation-supporting instruments changes, reacting to the business cycle phase and to financial incentives.
Revitalisation, which is defined as a planned process of restoring deprived areas, entails the difficult challenge of achieving long-lasting spatial, economic and social effects. In Poland, the accompanying inflow of European Union funds not only fosters a wide range of activities for entities involved in urban renewal, but also raises a question about the potential dysfunction of investments in deprived areas. Based on the experiences of Kraków, the paper presents some undesirable effects of projects implemented under the Local Revitalisation Programmes (LRP) in the years 2007-2013. The goal of the LRP projects was to promote the rehabilitation of deprived housing areas. The initial results, however, indicate that these projects are characterised by specific pitfalls, which include touristification, uniformisation, gentrification and social polarisation.
Spatial planning is one of key tasks of regional (voivodship) local government in Poland. A spatial development plan for a voivodship includes many aspects which need to be decided upon. However, the implementation of this plan is largely independent of the will of the local government. The theory of planning (including spatial planning) emphasises that implementation of the plan is an inherent aspect of planning. Therefore, the article analyses to what extent regional spatial planning can actually be considered planning.
The article discusses the political and legal aspects and the dynamics of Ukraine’s interaction with the EU and its Member States in the field of integrated border management in order to improve interagency and international cooperation, introduce joint control at checkpoints, organise joint patrols, improve the level of security and openness of state borders and enhance their integration function. The issues of construction and modernisation of checkpoints, implementation of European border standards, customs and other types of control at the state border of Ukraine and the EU countries have been researched. The perspectives of Ukraine’s entry into the integrated border management system at the present stage have been outlined. The mechanisms of in-depth cooperation in the field of integrated border management under conditions of implementing the Association Agreement between Ukraine and the EU have been elucidated.
The paper describes the creation of the Greater Paris metropolitan area (Métropole du Grand Paris, MGP), with special emphasis on the changes and challenges related to the implementation of the housing policy at the metropolitan level. MGP is an inter-municipal cooperation structure with its own budget and special status. It embraces Paris, 123 municipalities located in the neighbouring departments, and fie external municipalities. MGP will take the responsibilities in the field of: management of resources to support social housing, renovation of housing, elimination of low-quality buildings. The implementation of the housing policy at the metropolitan level is associated with a number of challenges mainly in terms of consolidation of activities undertaken by the institutions of social housing, reservation of land for social housing investments, increase in the amount of new housing, including attempts for their more even distribution at the metropolitan scale. In addition, a set of new challenges appeared due to the changing socio-demographic structure of households, which in turn require innovative architectural solutions.
The article presents the results of the analysis of the impact of the National Development Plan (NDP) 2004–2006 and the National Strategic Reference Framework (NSRF) 2007–2013 on divergence/convergence processes taking place in Poland as well as between its regions and the EU average, measured as GDP per capita in PPS. The analysis was made using simulation results received by applying 16 regional HERMIN models and data as well as forecasts concerning NDP and NSRF transfers prepared by the Ministry of Regional Development of the Republic of Poland. The application of HERMIN models allowed the authors to make forecasts regarding the following macroeconomic indicators: GDP per capita (in PPS) in relation to the EU average and to the national average by 2020. The results indicate that NDP and NSRF implementation can accelerate the convergence process between the Polish regions and the EU average and slow down the weak divergence process within the country.
The Act of 11 January 2018 amending certain acts in order to increase participation of citizens in the process of selecting, functioning and controlling certain public bodies (Journal of Laws 2018, item 130) obliged all local government units to establish a citizens’ resolution initiative and to regulate the basic procedures related to the preparation and submission of applications by a resolution of their law-making body. The article analyses the implementation activities undertaken in cities with county rights. It indicates that before the entry into force of the Act, 55 cities out of 66 had already implemented such an arrangement, and, in their case, the Act helped unify the procedures. The article also points out that some cities did not implement these regulations before the beginning of the 8th term of office of local governments, and in several cases there were problems with the implementation, which prevented citizens from exercising their resolution initiative. The article presents the legal status as of 31 December 2019.
The aim of the article was to characterise ESPON as a network-based international research programme and the evaluation of capacity of network analysis in studying scientific cooperation. Results of the study show that institutions involved in ESPON projects create a dense, closely interconnected network of cooperation. The network is dominated by a limited number of institutions, which are involved in large share of the projects and have the most expanded cooperation network. Spatial analysis proves, that there is significant lack of institutions from Central-Eastern Europe in the Programme. Network analysis allowed to identify the most efficient methods for improving the presence of Polish institutions in the ESPON Programme.
This article presents the opinions of residents of the immediate surroundings of three Brownfield Site Urban Regeneration Projects completed in Łódź (Poland) in the years 2006–2016, i.e. Manufaktura (textile industry facilities transformed into a mall), “Lofts at Scheibler” (a former spinning plant transformed into residential buildings with accompanying services) and EC1 (adaptation of a former EC1 power plant for cultural and educational purposes), and their impact on their immediate environment. The article presents the results of questionnaire surveys conducted by the author in 2017 on 587 respondents residing within a walking distance, i.e. up to 500 m from the above-mentioned investment projects.
The aim of the paper is to analyse the allocation of resources from the Cohesion Policy provided to individual regional programmes in the European Union’s 2021–2027 financial scheme. In addition to the European Regional Development Fund and the European Social Fund Plus funds, funds from the Just Transition Fund distributed under the European Funds for Just Transition programme, as well as funds from the European Funds for the Eastern Poland programme were also analysed. The analysis covers the proposition of allocation of funds to regions in the context of the experience gained so far in Poland in the implementation of regional programmes. The carried out analysis confirmed the decrease in the importance of regional programmes in shaping the Regional Development Policy in the 2021–2027 perspective due to the reduction in allocation.
In transition economies, the size and ownership structure of enterprises determine their economic behaviour as well as their attitudes towards innovations. Many studies show that one of the key factors accelerating economic performance of the companies is technological transfer from abroad, and that successful implementation of the new know-how is mainly undertaken by medium and large enterprises. The domestic micro and small enterprises located in Polish regions proved to be rather risk-averse and therefore not very innovative. However, their innovative activities accelerate over time, and eventually they catch up with foreign and large enterprises.
The purpose of this paper is to perform a cross-sectional ex-post evaluation of the impact of interventions carried out in the framework of EU Cohesion Policy on social cohesion of Polish cities. Social cohesion has been understood as the ability of modern society to ensure long-term prosperity for all its members, including the provision of equal access to resources, respect for human dignity and diversity, personal and collective autonomy and responsible participation. The study shows a concentration of resources in large system projects, and the greatest progress is seen in the case of education, labour market access for women and availability of medical services. A relatively slower improvement can be observed in programmes concerning social exclusion, supporting disabled people, and culture.
The paper discusses selected tools within Cohesion Policy that stimulate cooperation between cities. Subject to analysis are two programmes from 2004?2006: INTERRREG and URBACT. In the case of INTERREG programmes, the analysis pertains to the largest Polish cities (31 most populous cities and the Silesian and Tri-City conurbations), while in the case of URBACT, all the cities that were beneficiaries of the programme were taken into account. The results of the projects are usually of the soft type and involve transfer of good practices, building institutional capacity, and human capital. In this respect, the results of the analyzed projects should be considered at least satisfactory, although the number and scale of the completed projects does not allow for clear and measurable effects to be perceptible in a country-wide perspective.
The article presents 4 capital model as an evaluation method of the region development strategy implementation as well as strategy document analysis. The introduction provides definition of these types of capitals that might be adapted to analysis of sustainable development. Than the authors describes a result of exercise conducted together with representatives of self-government authorities consists of impact assessment of the strategy implementation in the context of selected forms of capital. The results were confronted with opinions of local self-governments authorities as well as small and medium size enterprises. These breakdown enabled authors to indicate weakness of the strategy and potentials trade-offs between different types of capital. As the final result recommendations regarding the updating processes of the strategy were formulated.
The paper analyses the Irish way of implementation of the structural assistance from the European Social Fund within a context of Ireland`s development strategy. Identification of the factors influencing considerable efficiency and effectiveness of Ireland`s performance is the article`s main focus. The paper begins with a review of the Irish labour market situation and, responding to it, human capital development policy of 1990s. Then, implementation and evaluation of the measures supported by the ESF within a programming period 1994-1999 are examined in detail. Finally, some conclusions and recommendations from the Irish case for Poland are outlined.
EU Funds received by the Polish economy in 2007–2013 in some part have also been used for revitalization activities. However, the rank of these activities was not the same in particular regions, as evidenced by, among others, the rank of revitalization in the Regional Operational Programmes and the amount of funds earmarked for regeneration. A significant difference was observed in relation to the selection process of the projects. This procedure examined on the examples of the Lower Silesia, Lesser Poland and Podkarpackie voivodships determined the final result of the revitalization at the regional scale, varying the type of beneficiaries, as well as the number and size of co-financed projects. Conclusions that follow from the analysis become particularly important in view of the new programming period 2014–2020.
The author of the paper describes the process and conceptions of regional development which have been used in the past 40 years of the economic transformation in the Ruhr Region in Germany. The article describes the socio-economic situation and explains the need for transformation in the region. It also presents a wide range of possible solutions for restructured mining regions and discusses the effects of implementation of the development methods used in the Ruhr Region. Finally, it describes the main points of the current strategy of development for the Ruhr Region. The data presented in the paper have been collected and developed thanks to a scholarship at the University of Duisburg-Essen, financed by The Foundation of Polish-German Cooperation.
The tourism sector plays an important role in regional economies. Its growth could become a driver of socio-economic development of different areas in Poland. The increasing number of visiting tourists has a positive impact on the labour market, and it stimulates entrepreneurship in other regions’ service sectors. Even though some Polish regions have great potential, there persist some substantial barriers to development of tourism: poor state of technical infrastructure, especially transport, significant dispersion of the sector, lack of tourism products, and poor promotion. As no separate policy dedicated to tourism is provided at the European Union level, the development of this sector can be financed from cohesion policy funds. The paper focuses on the use of EU funds for the development of tourism in the Warmia-Mazury region. The results of the analysis show a positive – albeit limited – impact of implemented projects on tourist attractiveness and on competitiveness of tourism sector firms. The effectiveness of the projects is limited due to low interest in cooperation in creating tourism products and to over-investment effects in some projects.
Article presents results of the analysis of 15 regional innovation strategies prepared by the Polish regions in the years 2002–2005. The stress was put on their conformity with the standards. In particular, adequacy of the diagnosis and objectives and character and scope of the first implementation activities were taken into account. The strategies in question turned out to be quite different as far as methodology and conceptual underpinnings adopted or objectives and activities proposed are concerned. The efforts put into RIS preparation were not in vain, however, there is a need to upgrade them up (wider use of qualitative criteria in diagnosis, improved compatibility of methodology used) and first of all to get full picture of innovativeness of Polish regions. And this is what cannot be achieved on the basis of those 15 strategies. Strongly recommended nationwide research on regional innovativeness may serve as a starting point to create national Innovation Support and Technology Transfer System SWIFT which is considered by Authors a precondition for effective utilization of regional efforts for the benefit of the country as a whole.
The JESSICA initiative was set up to provide a more sustainable and efficient response to the needs of urban areas, as compared to non-repayable grants. Anchored in the literature on place-based policy and territorial cohesion, this paper addresses the question how the JESSICA funds were allocated among Polish cities – whether, intuitively, only to key urban centres, or to smaller cities as well. The results illustrate that the repayable assistance of JESSICA was dispersed throughout the regions, although the degree of dispersion remains mixed across them. Almost half of the JESSICA funds was transferred to small and medium-sized cities. It was also found that the bulk of the assistance went to the projects that were implemented in cities situated within metropolitan areas of the regional capital cities.
Since the very beginning of their establishment, municipalities, counties and regions (voivodeships) have been struggling with financial problems. Unfortunately, these problems affect the performance of the tasks assigned to these administrative units, including the standard of provided services and investment activities. Although extensive, the scale of the unsatisfied needs in LGUs varies between individual units, including municipalities. Thus, the positive financial results (the balance at the closure of the fiscal year) achieved by local government units in Poland in the recent years, as well as their future, offer an intriguing topic of research. The purpose of this paper is to identify the causes that: 1) underpin the re-evaluation of the LGU goals (from the implementation of the local government mission to achieving a budget surplus), and 2) allow the positive result of the LGU budget to finance goals other than investment-related ones. In order to achieve this, the study covers and illustrates, using the empirical data from the years 2007-2016, the types of possible LGU budget results, LGU activities that could contribute to the closure to LGU budgets with a positive result, directions of using budget surpluses and the so-called uncommitted funds, as well as local governments’ debt in terms of the intergenerational solidarity concept of its repayment and its perceived optimal structure.
The aim of the article is to answer the question about the effects of Poland’s accession to the European Union from the point of view of regional inequalities in Poland. We present a neoclassical model of exogenous growth with the balance of European Union’s resources allocated to the cohesion and convergence policy implementation. The model is a generalization of the standard growth model of Solow and Swan. in the paper, we describe the methods of establishing the values of the model variables in a steady state. We perform a retrospective analysis of regional inequalities in Poland for the period 2004–2006 and a prospective analysis based on the models of growth of the Polish economy and the regional economies of voivodships. We draw conclusions about the first effects of the cohesion and convergence programme in Poland and the postulates for the principles of construction of new regional growth models as instruments of description and analysis of convergence and regional inequalities.
The paper attempts to evaluate the impact that the projects co-financed by European funds within the Cohesion Policy in the programming period 2004?2006 had on the competitiveness of large Polish cities. In the first part of the paper, we define competitiveness of cities and regions and operationalize it with indicators used in further analysis. Our evaluation is based on different quantitative methods of measuring correlations between competitiveness of cities and Cohesion Policy expenditures, which enables us to triangulate the results. The outcome is a set of hypothetical cause-effects relationships between public intervention and competitive position of cities. For their verification we employ qualitative case studies (See Report EUROREG 2010 and the articles by Marek Kozak and Andrzej Miszczuk in this issue).
The aim of the study is to examine the impact of the amendment to the Municipal Self-Government Act (hereinafter: MSGA; Journal of Laws 2018, item 994) on the implementation of participatory budgeting (PB) in 2019 and 2020 in Polish voivodship cities. Using the desk research method, 36 PB regulations and over 3.4 thousand projects were selected for implementation in 10 categories: 1) sports (investment and other), 2) leisure and recreation (investment and other), 3) construction or modernisation of sidewalks, 4) construction or modernisation of streets, 5) pedestrian walkways, 6) parking lots, 7) lighting, 8) city bicycles (bicycle infrastructure), 9) modernisation of buildings, and 10) other (e.g. educational, cultural, training). Detailed studies were carried on the influence of legislative changes on: 1) financial mechanisms; 2) principles and organisation of the budgeting process; 3) generic structure of projects; 4) participatory budgeting model. In order to verify the results obtained, changes in the PB regulations not resulting from the MSGA provisions were additionally analysed. It was shown that the amendment to the Act had a significant impact on the implementation of PB in all the analysed cities. The changes mainly concerned the financial and formal-organisational aspects of participatory budgeting process. The most crucial ones include: increase in the size of the overall subsidies (in 15 cities), modification of the distribution of the financial means (9), introduction of letters of support at the stage of project submission (7) and appeal procedure (9). Among the “non-statutory” activities, the abolition of age limits in the remaining 7 cities should be mentioned. These activities brought positive effects on the increase in turnout (15), the number of projects selected for implementation (12) and their average value (13). On the other hand, the changes in MSGA did not affect the generic structure of the projects (in both years, in 10 cities the category “leisure and recreation” prevailed, and 1149 projects from this category were selected for implementation). The final unification of the PB implementation model in Polish voivodship cities has been completed. Finally, three modes of PB implementation according to the new rules were indicated: financial, procedural and combined.
The paper focuses on issues related to the impact of quality management in local government at the municipal level on the use of EU funds supporting local development. Poland is one of the greatest beneficiaries of structural funds provided for regional development and strengthening cohesion within the Community. Local governments are one of the groups which absorbed most of the funds for 2007–2013. The paper describes how and to what extent the implementation of New Public Management tools in local government administration can guarantee efficient use of EU funds. Three areas of such impact are taken into consideration – the amount of acquired funds, efficient implementation of the projects co-financed by the EU, and the quality of these projects.
The global economic crisis that hit all the national economies in the EU area stimulated the need for new approaches in the planning and implementation of regional development policy. This paper investigates the debates about the role of the city of Riga and its development potential as the biggest city in Latvia, whilst also looking at the challenges and opportunities created by the need to respond to global changes. The article discusses the relevance of certain factors and demonstrates the actions taken by national authorities to promote the more balanced development of Latvia, as well as the opportunities to apply a place-based approach in promoting the development of Riga as the capital city of Latvia.
The effectiveness of the measures implemented under the EU cohesion policy has become a significant issue. The relevance of the topic is undeniable, given the ongoing discussion of the results of public interventions conducted at the EU level, and the resulting concept of an integrated approach used to study the effects of actions undertaken within the cohesion policy. Based on various studies conducted to date, the authors argue that the effectiveness of the funds allocated in Polish regions could be greater if we focused more on complementarity of the undertaken actions. The paper concentrates on issues related to complementarity between programmes and projects implemented under the EU Cohesion Policy in Polish regions. A case study of a Polish region – namely, Łódzkie – shows that the adopted methods and tools, intended to ensure complementarity, do not work in a proper way. The results suggest the existence of severe restrictions of assessing the actual scope of complementarity and the resulting synergy effects. As both analyses of documentation and in-depth participant interviews indicate that the concept of complementarity in the projects is misunderstood or deliberately distorted (so that the highest score during the application stage can be obtained), it can be stated that the scale of complementarity is far from satisfactory. Based on their research, the authors make conclusions and recommendations regarding the solutions that should be taken into account in order to improve the implementation of the complementarity concept in the next financial perspective for the years 2014–2020.
After 10 years of discussions about the need to empower the metropolitan areas in Poland, finally a metropolitan union law for the Śląskie Voivodeship [Silesian region] has been adopted. Defining two million people as a population level required for the creation of the metropolitan union confirmed that the legislator’s intention was to establish the first metropolitan union in Poland specifically in the Silesian conurbation due to its unique territorial structure. The establishment of the Upper Silesian and Zagłębie Metropolis [Górnośląsko-Zagłębiowska Metropolia] should be seen as an important social experiment and significant innovation in the Polish local – government system. The large territorial delimitation of the metropolitan union with 41 local units is a courageous step that proves a high level of mobilisation and strong involvement of Silesian local decision makers. The specific decision-making procedure based on double majority voting should entourage dialogue between the large and small member cities of the metropolitan union. The generally formulated competences of the metropolitan union allow considerable freedom to the authorities in prioritising tasks and projects. The author’s analyses the institutional architecture of the first Polish metropolitan union, which is a hybrid organisation combining an inter-municipal association and a local government unit, from the perspective of turning the Upper Silesian metropolitan area into an efficient system of metropolitan governance.
