Cohesion Policy in Greater-Poland

Abstract

The region of Greater-Poland is located in Western-Poland and was classified as a lagging region by the European Commission in 2007. This classification resulted in a large share of European development funds within the regional development budget. The regional policy on the allocation of the regional development budget was formulated in the Wielkopolska Regional Operational Programme (WROP). The main question of this research was to what extend the regional policy in Greater-Poland between 2007 and 2013 was effective. So far, the results of impact assessments of the effectiveness of regional policy have been rather unsatisfactory.

The research made use of qualitative research methods. The impact of the regional policy was analysed by 13 interviews and analysis of 5 policy documents. The interviews can be split into three groups: interviews with experts on regional policy in Greater-Poland, interviews with direct beneficiaries of the WROP and interviews with indirect beneficiaries. The policy documents are evaluation documents on the effectiveness of the WROP for the period 2007-2013.

The economy of Greater-Poland grew greatly between 2007 and 2013, and the socio-economic development of the region was sensational. The interviews with (indirect) beneficiaries suggested that the impact of the regional policy on the socio-economic development of the region was large. The experts on regional policy all had a favourable opinion on the impact of the regional policy on the socio-economic development of the region. However, they estimated that this positive impact was lower than suggested by the (indirect) beneficiaries.

Several critical remarks about the regional policy were made during the interviews. It was not able to improve the low innovativeness in the region, and it was not able to reduce the polarization trend in Greater-Poland. These two negative outcomes might be the result of a poor place-based regional development strategy, with many interventions not adjusted to the regional context. Moreover, the evaluation process of the regional policy was insufficient, and it is therefore doubtful whether regional policy makers in Greater-Poland have learned much from the evaluation process.