The next funding period of the European Commission fast approaching, it is of essential importance for urban planners to know what the investment priorities will be. When it comes to Poland, the future concentration of funds from this policy instrument have been presented last week in Warsaw by Marc Lemaître, Director-General for Regional and Urban Policy, and Joost Korte, Director-General for Employment, Social Affairs and Inclusion. As a result, it was made clear that the 72 billion euro available for the Central European country shall help advance with the following objectives:
- To further innovate and modernize its economy, particularly by promoting cooperation between science and business and the development of smart specialized enterprises;
- To facilitate transition towards green and low-carbon economy by emphasizing on efficiency and renewable energies, environmental protection and climate change adaptation;
- and finally – the labour market and social spheres Poland shall invest in honing skills so as to maintain competitiveness and cohesion, that contributed to the country being included in the list of developed economies last fall.
Naturally, these are in line with the five main objectives of the Cohesion Policy after 2020, namely Smarter Europe; Greener, carbon free Europe; Connected Europe; Social Europe and Europe closer to citizens. When it comes to Poland, the state is among the champions in absorbing EU funds, which has contributed to the creation of tens of thousands of jobs, considerable extension of the road network, amounting to 57 billion invested in the 2014-2020 period alone. More news about the funding period and what there is in for the cities are yet to come. Stay tuned.
