Bureaucratic bungling stops entrepreneurs getting their hands on EU cash...

However, although Deputy Economy Minister Marek Szczepański last week promised that the system would be up and running on time, the reality seems somewhat different. While EUR 420 million from the EU's structural fund is currently in place, the institutions responsible for implementing the scheme are not yet ready to handle applications from would-be recipients. Furthermore, nobody seems able to predict when the situation will be rectified. The main obstacle facing the scheme's execution, other than a lack of suitable laws, concerns the co-ordination of the various institutions involved, with the various bodies unable to reach agreement on how the system and procedures should operate. "Our team is working 24 hours a day," said Małgorzata Świderska, a departmental head at the Ministry of Economy, "but there are problems we are not able to tackle." (Puls Biznesu, pp. 1, 2, 6) D.W.