Bureaucratic incompetence likely to cost euro 3 billion in lost EU funds

The European Commission has warned the government that it could lose between 20%-25% of structural funds granted by Brussels if it does not substantially encourage work on preparing projects which will use these funds. Over 2004-2006 Poland could receive as much as euro 11.4 billion in structural help, which have to be used by the end of the second year after including them in the annual budget. The Commission warned that the present delays in using the money on some of the projects reaches three years, especially with regard to road construction. One bit of good news was that EC officials told Rzeczpospolita, "Among the 10 candidate countries, Poland and the Czech Republic are the most advanced in preparing programmes". (Rzeczpospolita, p. B2) M.M.