Freeing up the funds
From 2001 through 2005 she held the post of deputy chairperson of the Polish Agency for Enterprise Development, and in 1998-2001 served as Under Secretary of State at the Ministry of Labor and Social Policy.
Katarzyna Dębek: Why is the process of EU funds' absorption so slow?
Grażyna Gęsicka: One has to underline that the 'old' EU members have been making use of EU funds for years now while Poland and other new member states have had access to them for only a year and a half. New member states face very similar problems - the number of signed contracts is very high but the figures are much less impressive when it comes to the money actually paid out.
It stems from the reports about the use of structural funds and cohesion funds that EU subsidies are very popular among eligible beneficiaries. We've got plenty of projects and the contracts already signed account for more than a half of all available funds. This means that we don't lack ideas on how to make use of the EU money. The biggest problems are related to complicated procedures.
What steps are you planning to take first in order to increase the absorption of EU funds?
A couple of days ago the Council of Ministers adopted a program for the purpose of better EU fund absorption. We should have tangible results in the second half of the coming year. We are counting on the support of other Ministries that also play a vital role in the process.
This week the Council of Ministers also adopted an amendment to the Act on Public Procurement. Soon there will be talks on the Ministerial level about an amendment to the Act on the National Development Plan. We are also going to revise procedures for particular operational programs in order to speed up project implementation. We are going to identify projects with contracts that have already been signed, and we are going to prepare a 'fast track' especially for them, enabling them to change the sums in their contracts into payment applications sent by the Polish government to the EU Commission.
In this way we want to activate the resources that are currently on paper only - that is, they are contained in contracts with aid beneficiaries. We are talking here about more than R4 billion, which is some zł.16 billion. It is a lot of money and we want it to become part of the Polish economy as soon as possible.
What were the experiences of other EU members in their first years in the EU?
Old member states absorbed a comparable amount of resources as Poland or other new members after two years of their membership. Great Britain, for instance, made no periodical payments. The situation was similar in Holland and Italy, while in Poland at the end of this year the figure will reach 3.9 percent.
What changes in the Act on Public Procurement are you planning to introduce?
Proposed amendments concern, among other things, increasing the lowest financial threshold for the application of public tenders to projects whose value surpasses EUR 60,000 [zł.230,747], which would help smaller investments.
We also want to require that all information about the placing of a tender, as well as project implementation, be posted on the internet, provided that the value of the project exceeds EUR 3,000 [zł.11,537].
Inetrviewed by Katarzyna Dębek
