Brussels, 27/06/2003 (Agence Europe) - On 27 June, in Warsaw, the Commission began negotiations with Poland with a view to programming regional aid that this future Member State will receive over the first three years (2004-2006). In January this year, Poland was the first of the ten acceding countries to present to the Commission a whole series of proposals based on its national development plan for 2004-2006. In a letter addressed on 18 June to Jerzy Hausner, Polish Minister for the Economy, Commissioner Michel Barnier (regional policy) then presented the way in which the Structural and the Cohesion Funds were to be used in Poland, according to the Commission. Mr Barnier mainly placed emphasis on the importance of ensuring that the programmes in Poland were a "success, not only because of the obvious needs of the country but also because this would be a demonstration that they can bring added value to EU intervention in this field, at the time when its institutions are engaging in difficult negotiations on a new generation of cohesion measures for the period following 2006".
Among the future members, Poland will be by far the first beneficiary of the Structural Funds and Cohesion Funds as it will have the sum of nearly EUR 8.3 billion for the period 2004-2006 under the Community Structural Funds, and some EUR 4.2 billion under the Cohesion Fund, which represents around 1.8% of Poland's Gross Domestic Product (GDP) for this period. For the Commission, the main aim of such financing should be to increase growth and create jobs through investment. In the context of seven operational programmes, the intervention of the Structural Funds will be geared to the transport system, including urban transport, rural development, education, training, the employment market policy, the environment, the general business environment and the information society in an economy that is increasingly knowledge-based. The action of the Cohesion Fund will be focused on transport and environment infrastructures. There are 16 regions in Poland, all eligible for aid under Objective 1.