Paving the way for funding

At a high-profile press conference last week, the General Directorate for National Roads and Motorways (GDDKiA) signed a contract with Budimex-Dromex and Mosty Łódzkie for the construction of the Wyszków bypass as a part of the Warsaw-Białystok S8 route, as well as two other contracts with Scetauroute SA for the supervision and management of the Wyszków project and Warsaw-Terespol route reconstructions.

The construction of the Wyszków bypass is worth EUR 67 (zł.253) million, and is part of a larger project of the Radzymin-Wyszków route estimated at EUR 173 (zł.655) million. Around EUR 140 (zł.530) million will come from the EU Cohesion Fund.

The contracts should increase Poland's absorption of EU funds. Only a couple of days before the signing, Brussels warned Poland that it would lose out on much of the funding available to it.

"We have prepared more projects than the funds we have been given just to be able to use all the funds, and we will absorb the funds," says GDDiKA's general director, Zbigniew Kotlarek. He says that through 2006 Poland has been granted some EUR 1.7 (zł.6.4) billion, while the value of contracts already signed comes to some EUR 886 million (zł.3.35 billion). Some EUR 472 million (zł.1.8 billion) of the amount Poland has already spent on these contracts is eligible for EU reimbursement, but much less has actually been received from Brussels so far. "The projects are pre-financed by the Polish administration, [and] are paid for by the EU after completion," says Kotlarek.

According to the the GDDKiA, the absorption of EU funding by the Sector Operational Program 'Transport' will improve and should reach some zł.1.6 billion. The value of the contracts signed under this program so far is estimated at around zł.856 million, though only about 10 percent of that amount has already been spent. Director Kotlarek says that by the end of 2006 the program will have absorbed some zł.600 million.