PREFERENCES OF POLES CONCERNING THE SHAPE OF REGIONAL POLICY AND THE ALLOCATION OF EUROPEAN FUNDS.

• Author: Kisiala, Wojciech

1. Introduction

   Since the introduction of the so-called Delors I Package making effective the provisions of the Single European Act (SEA) of 1986, the European Union's structural funds have become chief instruments intended to ensure economic and social cohesion at the Community level (Bailey and De Propris, 2002; De Michelis and Monfort, 2008; Paraskevopoulos and Leonardi, 2004). With the transformation of the principles of the Community's regional policy, there was a growing conviction of a great importance of those two cohesion dimensions for its development. Also growing was the weight attached to the territorial cohesion, as reflected first in the approach to its adoption in the Lisbon Treaty, and then in the statement made in the Territorial Agenda of the European Union that territorial cohesion was the basic goal of the EU spatial policy (Faludi, 2009; Cotella, 2012). Establishing this goal was connected, among others, with the admission of ten new members to the EU in 2004, and then Bulgaria and Romania in 2007. Because of the distinctly lower level of economic development in those countries than in the 'old' EU members, the enlargement meant a great increase in the inter-regional differences. It was the new members that became the greatest beneficiaries of the European cohesion policy and that took active part in working out its principles: the states of Central and Eastern Europe (CEE) were active in preparing the Territorial Agenda of the European Union, thus in fact determining its shape (Cotella, 2012) (1).

   In the 2007-2013 financial perspective, 347 billion euros were allotted to the EU cohesion policy. Nearly half of this sum went to the 12 new members (Wokoun, 2007), the highest proportion--almost 20% of the means, or as much as 67 billion euros going to Poland. This was due to a combination of two factors: its large population number (38 million) and its sub-average level of economic development (lower in terms of per capita GDP than in the majority of the EU members from Central and Eastern Europe).

   The use of such substantial financial means as those Poland has received in the form of Community funds is closely connected with the adoption of a specific development policy (model) and strategic, integrated thinking about regional development. This is especially significant in the CEE states because of the complexity and the scale of the socio-economic transformation they have undergone since 1989, and because of the large-scale effect of this transformation on spatial differences (Adams, 2006; Balaz, Kluvankova-Oravska and Zajac, 2007; Finka, 2011; Korec and Rusnak, 2013). The development problems still facing Poland and the remaining CEE countries include the territorial uneven economic growth and greater differences in the level of economic development among regions comparatively with the old EU states (Bachtler and Gorzelak 2007). This concerns in particular the ever-growing divergence between the dynamically developing metropolitan areas and the peripheral regions with their high unemployment rate and poverty (Czyz, 2012; Smctkowski, 2013; Churski, 2014).

   An example of a policy intended to strengthen territorial cohesion is the new 'National Strategy for Regional Development 2010-2020' adopted by the Polish government in 2010. It assumes efficient use of individual territorial development potentials to achieve medium-term growth in the economy, employment and spatial cohesion. However, observers both from Poland and abroad have some doubts about the attainment of those directions because the experience shows that the achievement of the declared regional policy targets has been rather limited in Poland so far (Czyz and Hauke, 2011; Czyz, 2012; Ferry, 2013). As Churski puts it (2014, p. 76), 'the development policy pursued so far has proved to be of limited effectiveness in the convergence of socio-economic development at the regional level while producing a divergence noticeable at the local level'.

   Whatever the doubts regarding the realistic chance of attaining the above development directions, one can note that they have a significant social dimension: they are supposed to prevent marginalization, and the local measures taken should be based on partnership. To achieve this, it seems necessary to have a detailed knowledge not only of development potentials of various areas, but also opinions and attitudes of their residents concerning preferred development directions, and hence their preferences as to the fields of allocation of the European funds. This becomes obvious when reflecting on the main goals of economic development itself, which--simplifying greatly--always affects people, and its effects are supposed to serve them (Cox, 2011).

   The knowledge of the residents' opinions about the allocation of the European means is also important for more particular reasons. First, in Poland, as in many other less wealthy EU states, the means obtained from the European funds make up a substantial part of the local budgets (Swianiewicz et al., 2010; Goncalves Veiga, 2012). Second, those means play a special role in investments made by local governments: according to Swianiewicz et al. (2010), in the years 2004-2008 over 90% of the funds obtained by them went to investment. Third, learning and accommodating the opinions of the residents about the use of the European funds and regional policy directions could be a factor contributing to greater public trust in administrative organs of various rungs and a small step towards overcoming the 'culture of distrust' which, as Sztompka (1996) observes, still pervades Polish society at all levels of social life. An adverse effect of the lack of trust on the implementation of EU regional policy in Poland has been demonstrated by Swianiewicz et al. (2010) and Lackowska-Madurowicz and Swianiewicz (2013). Fourth, learning the opinions of the residents about the use of the European means is increasingly important with the advancing professionalization of the local governments in obtaining and using them (Swianiewicz et al., 2008; Swianiewicz, 2013), and also because of the great significance of those means for strategic development planning by local authorities (Bachtler and Turok, 2013). And finally, studies conducted so far show that most Poles not only have supported its EU membership throughout the entire period after their country's accession in 2004, but can also see the beneficial effect of the European funds obtained (Cichocki, 2011). In this matter, the situation in Poland is, on the one hand, similar to the one observed in Western Europe in the late 1990s, where the increase in the budget of structural funds was accompanied by the increase in support for the EU (Osterloh, 2008). On the other hand, though, it is unique as Poland ranks highest in the EU in terms of familiarity with EU-funded projects among citizens, and the belief in their positive impact on the socioeconomic growth (Eurobarometer, 2013). However, as Cichocki (2011) demonstrates, the beneficial effect of the European funds in Poland is seen fairly stereotypically, in terms of infrastructural investment (mostly transport infrastructure). This leads to people's appreciation of the role of the funds in their country's development while being blind to major individual (personal) advantages generated from their use.

   The above arguments and the fact that the attitudes and preferences of Poles concerning the European funds are still poorly known (like those of the residents of other EU states) were the main motives behind the research undertaken for the purposes of this article. Its main target was to uncover and understand preferences of the Poles concerning the country's regional policy and the assignment of the European funds in the successive years. Special attention was given to differences--so far not analyzed--among various categories of residents concerning their preferences for allotting the funds to particular places and fields of activity, examined in terms of their places of residence, occupational status, education, and age. This article is intended to fill the gap in research on the social context of economic development, which at present is largely connected with the regional policy of the European Union and its national equivalent.

2. Research methods

   We used a diagnostic survey method involving the accumulation of knowledge about social phenomena, views and opinions of selected communities, and the intensification and trends of the various phenomena (Hackman and Oldham, 1975). The goal of the poll conducted for the purposes of this research was to identify attitudes and preferences of Poland's residents concerning the regional policy pursued so far, and the allocation of the European funds in the successive years.

   During the development of the diagnostic studies, many survey research techniques have been worked out (Oppermann, 1995; Schmidt, 1997; Stanton, 1998; Lazar and Preece, 1999; Jansen, Corley and Jansen, 2007). In spite of the increasingly popular modern survey research techniques replacing the traditional PAPI technique, it was this method that was used in the present research. The basic reason for choosing it was the wish to conduct the survey research not only in the largest cities but also in the peripheral areas, which made CATI and CAWI techniques less fit for the purpose.

   Based on the filled questionnaires a database was constructed with answers of all the respondents, which allowed a further mathematical-statistical analysis of the material collected. The respondents were divided into groups, the criteria being the socio-demographic variables listed in Table 1.

   We used several statistical methods. When examining the relations between the responses given and the socio-demographic characteristics of the respondents, correlation analysis was employed. In order to reduce the analyzed variables to binary ones, we used the Kendall's tau-b correlation...