Poland is among the countries that have least effectively used EU funds for green transformation – says the new Climate Action Network (CAN) report.

In the years 2014-2020, European Union countries spent an average of 9.7 percent of  EU funds for financing energy transformation. In the analyzed years, Poland spent 7.7 percent of EU regional funds for green energy infrastructure. Thus, our country was in fourth place among the countries worst spending EU money, after Slovakia (6.6 percent), Bulgaria (6.7 percent) and Croatia (7 percent).

The authors of the report see the reasons for the ineffective use of EU funds by Poland primarily in the lack of strategy and long-term transformation planning in our country. They point out that national energy and climate policies do not exist or have long lost their relevance.

The authors of the report recommend that the energy transformation in Poland should be submitted in the hands of citizens and local governments, not the government because they believe that EU funds will be best spent.

According to CAN-Europe, the new multiannual community budget for 2021-2027 needs to change significantly if the Union wants to achieve its intended goal of climate neutrality.

The entire Union should allocate 40 percent in the coming years from the European Regional Development Fund for goals related to ecological transformation, i.e. at least double the current expenditure.

(300gospodarka)