Show us the money!
But we all knew there was a pragmatic reason too: Poland would be in receipt of EU funds worth many millions of euros, the benefit of which would be felt immediately.
Very soon, we believed, our roads would be wide and smooth; our taps would flow with water tasting like it came from mountain springs, and all of this would be thanks to Brussels.
In reality, of course, none of these changes can happen overnight, and much of this process was begun several years ago, long before Poland's EU accession was absolutely certain. Nevertheless, the high goals, byzantine EU institutions and vast sums of money involved remain so abstract to the average citizen that few of us would be able to identify what exactly EU funds have recently done for Poland - or will do in the near future.
The Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession (ISPA) was created in 1999, following an EU Commission proposal "to enhance economic and social cohesion in the applicant countries of Central and Eastern Europe for the period 2000-2006" as part of a general funding policy to improve "economic and social cohesion" across the very different regions of a 25-state EU.
This is the mechanism responsible for a large part of the infrastructure changes that the public expects. The ISPA was designed to assist big infrastructure projects in the sectors of transportation and the environment, says Giovanni Capellino, an EU counsellor in Warsaw. "The first projects started to be put into place at the end of 2002. New structures had to be developed to allow this to happen."
Capellino explains that it has taken several years to get organizational structures in place to deal with this source of incoming EU funding. The biggest projects will take many years to implement, and it is somewhat artificial to talk about a clear 'start' and 'end' date for one of these initiatives.
And yet, slowly but surely, the projects are emerging. The biggest transport project of them all, the reconstruction of the Krzywa-Wrocław stretch of the A4 motorway, was started two years ago and will take at least another two years to complete. Of the E252.7 million (zł.1.16 billion) required to pay for the project, the EU is providing E189.5 million (zł.871.6 million).
"The A4 extension outside Wrocław will take longer to complete because it is so big, but most ISPA transport projects will be finished this year," says Adam Grodzicki, transport task manager with the European Commission in Warsaw.
The biggest railway infrastructure investment, the E185.3 million (zł.852.38 million) Siedlce-Terespol link modernization is scheduled to be finished before 2008 and will receive E139 million (zł.639.4 million) in EU contributions.
In terms of cost per project, a Bielsko Biała-Cieszyn motorway construction, a Minsk Mazowiecki-Siedlce railway line modernization, and a Zgorzelec-Legnica railway line modernization round out the top five EU-assisted transport infrastructure projects in Poland.
Each of them are worth well over E100 million (zł.460 million), and each of them have EU funds with disbursement deadlines within the next four years.
While transport and environment sectors share equal funding priority, EU-funded environmental projects are less costly and therefore more numerous. Many cost under E50 million (zł.230 million), although, paradoxically, the largest of them all is even bigger than the largest transportation infrastructure projects.
The flagship ISPA co-financed environmental project is a vast wastewater and water treatment project in Szczecin. The total value of the project is E288 million (zł 1324.8 million), and it will receive 66 percent of its funding from ISPA co-financing.
"The Szczeczin project is the comprehensive building of water pipelines and sewage pipelines, pumping stations and water treatment stations," says Adam Kaznowski, environment task manager with the European Commission in Warsaw. "The contracts are under way, either already started or having been tendered out, and we are waiting for the tender results," he says, adding, "The majority of the tenders will be completed in the next month or two."
"The press often complain that all this money is being talked about [but] that in reality little has been done," adds Capellino. "But it is very important to remember how long it takes. One hundred percent expenditure will be by 2007."
"If you go down to ul. Czerniakowska you will probably find equipment there. The pipeline there is the first evidence of something occurring in Warsaw," continues Kaznowski. "If you go to Olsztyn, there is a renovation of a works just completed there. In Piła, a water treatment plant is at an advanced stage in its construction. From a financial point of view, Olsztyn and Piła are not large, but they are early successes."
"By the end of this year, if you go to Szczecin, you will regret it. You won't be able to drive around anywhere without coming across some great construction work. A similar situation will be in Toruń and several other cities," he says.
After three-and-a-half years of implementing ISPA, the European Commission delegation in Poland argues that the bulk of projects will be coming 'on stream' imminently. "It has taken three and a half years of hard work to finally get to a stage where there will be a very visible presence of EU money in Poland," says Kaznowski.
The surge of infrastructure development, it seems, is about to begin. At last.
Very soon, we believed, our roads would be wide and smooth; our taps would flow with water tasting like it came from mountain springs, and all of this would be thanks to Brussels.
In reality, of course, none of these changes can happen overnight, and much of this process was begun several years ago, long before Poland's EU accession was absolutely certain. Nevertheless, the high goals, byzantine EU institutions and vast sums of money involved remain so abstract to the average citizen that few of us would be able to identify what exactly EU funds have recently done for Poland - or will do in the near future.
The Instrument for Structural Policies for Pre-Accession (ISPA) was created in 1999, following an EU Commission proposal "to enhance economic and social cohesion in the applicant countries of Central and Eastern Europe for the period 2000-2006" as part of a general funding policy to improve "economic and social cohesion" across the very different regions of a 25-state EU.
This is the mechanism responsible for a large part of the infrastructure changes that the public expects. The ISPA was designed to assist big infrastructure projects in the sectors of transportation and the environment, says Giovanni Capellino, an EU counsellor in Warsaw. "The first projects started to be put into place at the end of 2002. New structures had to be developed to allow this to happen."
Capellino explains that it has taken several years to get organizational structures in place to deal with this source of incoming EU funding. The biggest projects will take many years to implement, and it is somewhat artificial to talk about a clear 'start' and 'end' date for one of these initiatives.
And yet, slowly but surely, the projects are emerging. The biggest transport project of them all, the reconstruction of the Krzywa-Wrocław stretch of the A4 motorway, was started two years ago and will take at least another two years to complete. Of the E252.7 million (zł.1.16 billion) required to pay for the project, the EU is providing E189.5 million (zł.871.6 million).
"The A4 extension outside Wrocław will take longer to complete because it is so big, but most ISPA transport projects will be finished this year," says Adam Grodzicki, transport task manager with the European Commission in Warsaw.
The biggest railway infrastructure investment, the E185.3 million (zł.852.38 million) Siedlce-Terespol link modernization is scheduled to be finished before 2008 and will receive E139 million (zł.639.4 million) in EU contributions.
In terms of cost per project, a Bielsko Biała-Cieszyn motorway construction, a Minsk Mazowiecki-Siedlce railway line modernization, and a Zgorzelec-Legnica railway line modernization round out the top five EU-assisted transport infrastructure projects in Poland.
Each of them are worth well over E100 million (zł.460 million), and each of them have EU funds with disbursement deadlines within the next four years.
While transport and environment sectors share equal funding priority, EU-funded environmental projects are less costly and therefore more numerous. Many cost under E50 million (zł.230 million), although, paradoxically, the largest of them all is even bigger than the largest transportation infrastructure projects.
The flagship ISPA co-financed environmental project is a vast wastewater and water treatment project in Szczecin. The total value of the project is E288 million (zł 1324.8 million), and it will receive 66 percent of its funding from ISPA co-financing.
"The Szczeczin project is the comprehensive building of water pipelines and sewage pipelines, pumping stations and water treatment stations," says Adam Kaznowski, environment task manager with the European Commission in Warsaw. "The contracts are under way, either already started or having been tendered out, and we are waiting for the tender results," he says, adding, "The majority of the tenders will be completed in the next month or two."
"The press often complain that all this money is being talked about [but] that in reality little has been done," adds Capellino. "But it is very important to remember how long it takes. One hundred percent expenditure will be by 2007."
"If you go down to ul. Czerniakowska you will probably find equipment there. The pipeline there is the first evidence of something occurring in Warsaw," continues Kaznowski. "If you go to Olsztyn, there is a renovation of a works just completed there. In Piła, a water treatment plant is at an advanced stage in its construction. From a financial point of view, Olsztyn and Piła are not large, but they are early successes."
"By the end of this year, if you go to Szczecin, you will regret it. You won't be able to drive around anywhere without coming across some great construction work. A similar situation will be in Toruń and several other cities," he says.
After three-and-a-half years of implementing ISPA, the European Commission delegation in Poland argues that the bulk of projects will be coming 'on stream' imminently. "It has taken three and a half years of hard work to finally get to a stage where there will be a very visible presence of EU money in Poland," says Kaznowski.
The surge of infrastructure development, it seems, is about to begin. At last.
