Country report Poland - Work Package 1 Ex post evaluation of Cohesion Policy programmes 2007-2013, focusing on the European Regional Development Fund (ERDF) and the Cohesion Fund (CF)

Poland was alone among the EU Member States, in avoiding global recession in 2008-2009. Since the slowdown in the 2011-2013, growth has increased back to over 3% a year, but still slightly below the rates experienced before the slowdown, while unemployment in 2015 was well below the rate in 2007 at the start of the programming period.

In the 2007-2013 period, the whole country qualified for support under the Convergence Objective, though there are significant differences between regions in the level of economic development. These disparities remained broadly unchanged over the period. In particular, the Eastern regions remained the poorest in the country because of their structural disadvantages (over-representation of low productivity sectors and poor infrastructure). GDP per head in these regions was still less than half that in the Capital city region, Mazowieckie in 2015, and over 20% less than in the Western regions.

The ERDF and the Cohesion Fund going to Poland for the period amounted to EUR 57.2 billion, equivalent to 2.3% of GDP and 41% of Government capital expenditure. The rate of programme implementation, as reflected in payments relative to the funding available, was relatively consistent over the period to reach 95% by the end of March 2016, implying that all the funding available was spent by the end of 2015 as the regulations require.